Melody of Love
by BigCityCola1975
Summary: During the war with Giygas, Ness is transported to the world of Mother 3 where he meets Lucas and his friends. The new group must now take down the Pig Mask Army, but what does Giygas have in mind for our heroes?
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Tazmily

**Chapter 1: Welcome to Tazmily**

_This chapter will be told from Ness's point of view._

After hours of what seemed like endless falling, I had finally found myself in a strange place. It looked both familiar and completely alien. I was in a forest that was surrounded by large, craggy mountains and I'm guessing, the ocean, only based off of the faint sound of waves crashing against a cliff side. I could hear the sound of what I could only guess to be a dragon roaring in the distance, there was a sweet smell in the air, almost like cinnamon. Looking around I saw many creatures that looked rather recognisable, such as what we have affectionately come to call 'Mr. Batty', which was a collective name for a species of bat that roamed the forests of my home town. Wait? Where is my home town? I'm clearly not in it now, so, where am I?

This Forest I stood in was very dense and at the same time, very open. There were spots in the forest where the forest covered the ground and others in which the grass could be seen from. Some of the grassy patches were yellow and dry and some open areas of the forest had no grass at all. A few of the trees that I could see were blackened, almost as if they had either been struck by lightening or set on fire.

"Hello?" a voice cried out in the distance.

I turned my head in hopes of seeing where that distant voice had originated and to my surprise, I saw a young boy, no younger than 13, who was stood a little over two meters away from me. I could only wonder why he was so quiet despite being so close, but the only conclusion I could draw was that he was a very shy and mild-mannered person who would try to avoid confrontation at all costs.

This boy was about as tall as I am and yet, he seemed a lot smaller, he was dressed rather similarly to me, he was wearing a striped red and yellow t-shirt with blue shorts and red and beige shoes. He had adorable chubby cheeks and big blue eyes, but his hair was the real attention seeker, his hair was a bright blonde that could almost be mistaken for yellow and he had a big, pointy quiff, he kind of looked like he just woke up like that

"Hi." I returned.

He eyed me up and down as if he was trying to identify me, but the tense expression on his face seemed to tell me that he couldn't work out who I am. This alarmed me… knowing I was in a strange place where no-one knew me meant that no-one could help me… or so I thought.

"erm… Are you alright?" asked the strange boy.

"Yeah… I think so… you?" I asked, I tried to keep the awkward conversation moving, but it proved to be a challenge.

"Yes thank you… I'm good…" replied the boy. "If you don't mind me asking… I've never seen you around here before… are you new here or something…?"

"Well… I… Don't really… know…"

"What? You don't know if you live here?"

"Well… I can't remember…"

"do you remember your name?"

"No… I can't… I can't remember anything…" I stood still for a moment, letting this 'amnesia' wash over me… my memories were not completely gone… I could still remember some people's faces, although I had no earthly idea of who they were or how their voices sounded but I could easily picture their faces. I could even remember the way my hometown looked, many square buildings with colourful signs and bright colours everywhere one looked. There was a big building made of brown bricks that had a big sign on it that said 'Drug store' that had a big tarp on top of it. Whenever someone walked on the road, they ran the risk of being hit by a car because everyone in this town was a dangerous driver. See? I could remember all of these small details and yet, I couldn't even remember something simple like the town's name or the names of my friends… how frustrating!

"Um… Don't worry. I'm sure your memories will return soon!"

"Yeah… I hope so."

"and besides… A psychic like you should be able to remember in no time at all!" he said optimistically.

"A psychic?" I responded. "I'm a psychic?"

"Yeah you are… _aren't you?_" he asked curiously. "I mean you must be because I can sense it."

"Well I guess so…" I said hesitantly. "Wait! If you could sense me… then you must be a psychic!"

The boy paused for a moment and then smiled showing many teeth which were all a pristine white and were all in line with each other. This boy took care and pride in his dental hygiene.

"Yes, I am… I haven't had my powers very long though." The mysterious boy said whilst continuing to show his stunning smile. He then looked down at his feet as he locked away his radiant smile with his rosy lips. He looked saddened by what he was thinking about but then upon realising I was still watching him, he looked up and smiled again.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"What? me… Um… yes… I'm fine."

He may have said that he was fine, but his face told a different story. His eyes painted a picture of a very long past with many souls lost… perhaps the souls of people he loved.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked the boy.

"Yes, I do!" the boy replied. His face seemed to have perked up, almost as if he is relieved that the subject had been changed. "we're in Tazmily Village in the NoWhere Islands."

"NoWhere Islands?" I had never heard of such a place in all my life. I then began to wonder if this was the home town in the farthest reaches of my memory of which the name I can't recall. Maybe I was in the place that I knew as my home but there was no way I could be sure. No way to know for certain.

Me and the boy started to walk through the forest and into the cute little village which looked rather western like something that you would see in a cowboy movie, the buildings were very well maintained and looked like a few of them sold some merchandise of some kind… there was a little shop that sold trinkets and weapons and other kinds of things like balls and skittles for playing ball games that seemed to be a lovely pass time in this quaint little village. There was even a bakery that had the most delicious looking iced buns, sausage rolls, cupcakes, cookies, chewy biscuits and… cinnamon rolls? Is that why it smells like cinnamon?

"Hey! Can you tell me why it smells like cinnamon here?" I asked curiously.

"Oh! That's because of the bakery in the village, it's honestly like it doesn't stop. You can smell the fresh cakes and pastries all day long."

My stomach began to rumble and grumble as we eyed up the yummy treats, my mouth watered as I couldn't help but stare at the perfectly round cinnamon roll… next to steak, this was one of my favourite foods… if only I had some money with me… oh wait! I do… but I don't know this place, my money may not be any good here, what is a lot of money in my home may be worth less than a penny in the Nowhere islands.

"Hey! What's the currency here?" I asked curiously.

"Currency?"

The strange boy looked at me with a very puzzled expression on his face, I assumed that due to his young age, he may not have understood some of the complex words I was using.

"You know… the money you use here…"

"Oooooh!" he responded knowing that the ambiguity had been cleared up. "We use Dragon points here… do you?"

"No, I don't, I have about three dollars with me, I left most of my money at home… but it's no good here"

"I have a few dragon points!" he said excitedly. "Wanna get a bite to eat from this bakery?"

"You don't mind?" I responded.

"Oh course not! My mom taught me to treat everyone I meet with kindness and generosity and I feel like you may need it!"

"Oh… well… thank you very much!" I said as I began to grin at him, I couldn't comprehend such kindness, such unconditional generosity was unheard of where I come from, many people believed that what is yours is yours only, but clearly the Nowhere islands have a different way of life… a much more preferable way of life. The entirety of the village we stood in was wrapped in a warm and light energy, this village was so small, I wondered if everyone here knew one another and maybe, that's where this kindness extends from.

We both quickly stepped into the small bakery and eyed up so many different treats that stood before us, the strange boy that I had been walking around with scratched his bright blonde quiff as he was trying to decide what he wanted, he seemed very unsure of what looked appealing to him, of course it all looked delicious. I knew what I wanted but I decided to keep it to myself until he knew what he wanted because I didn't want to seem rude, after all, this was his treat and I didn't want to appear like I was using him.

The baker then appeared from the kitchen dressed in his white overalls and chef's hat.

"Hello Lucas! What can I get for you today?" asked the baker.

"_Lucas?_" I asked.

"Yeah…" a look of shock and realisation over came his face. "Oh my gosh! I never told you my name! that was so rude of me… I'm Lucas, nice to meet you… _again_."

I smiled at him as I reassured him that it was okay, after all, I didn't give him my name… not like I could remember it.

"Well hello Lucas… I'm… err!... Um… Nice to meet you!"

"Pffft…" Lucas sounded as he tried not to laugh. "still can't remember, eh?"

"Yeah…"

"Who's your little friend, Lucas?" asked the baker curiously.

"Well he can't really remember his name…" Lucas said.

"Oh well, I'm sure it will come back…" said the baker reassuringly.

"I hope so…" I said optimistically.

"Anyways, what'll it be fellas?"

"Oh, I'll have a cinnamon roll, what would you like?" Lucas said clearly, he was definitely trying to make sure he spoke clearly and didn't mumble.

"I'll have the same please." I answered.

"Coming right up…" said the baker.

"You like cinnamon rolls too?" I asked Lucas.

"Yeah, they're one of my favourite foods, other than steak."

"Oh! Same here except, Omelettes are my favourite food…"

Just as we finished our last sentences, the baker emerged once more with two paper bags in each of his hands.

"Here you go, boys. One cinnamon roll for each of you."

"Thank you very much" said Lucas politely.

"Yes, thank you." I mimicked.

"That'll be four dragon points please…" said the baker.

"Here you go, sir." Lucas said as he handed the baker two golden coins that were both worth two dragon points. The baker then opened his cash register and placed the two coins in carefully.

"Have a good day, you two!" said the baker politely.

"Yeah you too!" exclaimed Lucas.

"Thank you" I said politely.

We then sat at a bench and proceeded to sink our teeth in our delicious treats. Lucas handed me the paper bag and I opened it eagerly, Lucas did the same and we then began to tuck in. Nothing but the sound of us eating could be heard from the two of us as we both looked at each other and smiled with our full mouths.

We finished eating our soft, warm cinnamon rolls as we watched the world pass us by. Many of the people who walked past us said hello to Lucas which only verifies what I had previously concluded about the town, everyone at least knew of everyone, some more so than others.

Suddenly, the skies above us began to darken, a heavy downpour soon followed. This downpour was like something in a disaster movie, it was so heavy and so out of the blue, it was like someone caused it, but that's impossible. Before this, the brick pavement seemed very dry, almost charred. As the rain hit the bricks we walked on, they were gulped down deep into the arid dirt. The rain drops as quickly as they fell from the clouds above, the rain fell fast and formed puddles on the ground before they were absorbed into the parched earth.

"Come on!" said the blonde. "let's get out of this rain!"

I nodded in agreement and then dashed off with Lucas. We passed an allotment of cute little houses with flowers growing in pots that were underneath the windows. It appeared that many of the residents of the town had a similar idea to us and had decided to get out of the rain as quickly as they could. We soon approached a cliffside with a very scenic view and a well-kept log cabin atop it. We approached the entrance of this log cabin, the latter of which had a dog-house in front of it which read the name 'Boney'. This Log cabin had a beautiful garden with brightly coloured flowers that appeared to be singing and celebrating in the rain, I can only assume that they were parched, much like the dirt they grew in.

We stumbled up the stairs onto the porch where the rain couldn't reach us. Lucas turned the door knob and invited me in. The interior of this log cabin was tasteful. All the furnishings had an aesthetically pleasing theme and looked well-maintained. The cabin itself was very tidy and it was clear that everything had its own place. Atop the dining table, there sat a vase with a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers inside it. There were also many photo frames that had been sat there for so long that they had gathered so much dust that you couldn't see the photo inside it.

"Just make yourself comfortable." Lucas said. "if this rain doesn't let up, you may be here for a while."

"Okay" I replied.

I took off my rucksack and placed it gently on a peg near the door and then proceeded to sit down on the sofa. Looking around, I could see that this boy, or anyone else who lived here, had received a very large number of unopened letters and presents, a few of which were either addressed to someone named Flint or Claus, but judging by how untouched everything seemed, I'd guess that this mysterious boy was the only person who lived here.

"So, I've been meaning to ask…" I said as he looked back at me with a puzzled expression on his face. "Do you live alone?"

"Yeah… I live on my own…" replied Lucas, he seemed like he was withholding information of some kind, but I didn't want to pry. "it's helpful though, for situations like this one, someone needs my help, so I offer them a place to sleep without having to ask anyone beforehand. Say… do you remember your name yet?"

"No." I replied coldly. "I can't remember anything… Wait? You said I'm a psychic, right?"

"Um… yeah?" Lucas said.

"And you said you're a psychic… does that mean you can read minds?"

"I think so… truthfully, I've only been contacted telepathically, I've never opened a telepathic link myself." Lucas said as he began to fidget. "I'm not sure how it works, I don't know if I can do it."

"Sure, you can!" I said enthusiastically. "You were able to sense me from quite a while away so surely at this distance it should be easy, right?"

"I guess so." He reluctantly replied. "Wait? Why do you want me to read your mind?"

"I think you may be able to help me remember who I am." I said with a smile on my face.

"Well okay then, I guess I could give it a try."

Lucas closed his eyes and put his hands together. The air surrounding his hands began to glow and his face tensed. He opened his eyes and looked straight into mine. In a short time later, I began to hear a voice in my head.

_"__Hello? Can you hear me?"_

_"__Lucas? Is that you?" _I replied.

_"__Yes! It worked! I can communicate telepathically! This is amazing!" _Lucas replied.

_"__This is so cool!"_ I replied.

Lucas fell silent in my mind, I opened my eyes to see if he was alright and he appeared to be fine, he just looked like he was deep in focus.

A few minutes had passed, and I was beginning to worry that there may not even be a memory of my name, I began to think that my name and the names of all the people I knew were lost forever until Lucas opened his eyes again excitedly.

"Ness Wyatt." He said with a grin on his face. "Your name is Ness Wyatt."

"Ness Wyatt?" I questioned. "Hmm… It doesn't feel right. Although I'm not certain what my name is so I guess it works."

"well I'm glad I was able to help." Lucas responded.

In a matter of seconds later, hundreds, no, thousands of memories began to flash before my eyes. Miraculously, I could remember almost everything.

"I… I remember…" I mumbled.

"you remember what?" Lucas questioned.

"I can remember my friends… Paula, Poo and Jeff, I can also remember the town I come from… A place called Onett in Eagleland." I paused for a moment, as if a memory came back and then soon disappeared again. "Hmmm…"

"What is it?" Asked Lucas concernedly.

"I had something… But it's gone" I said disappointedly.

"Wait? You say you come from Onett in Eagleland… But I've never heard of it."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Lucas pulled out a world map and began looking for somewhere named Eagleland. "See… I'm sorry but Eagleland doesn't exist."

"But that's impossible!" I protested.

"Here… see for yourself…" Lucas said as he handed me the map.

I began to panic as I searched the entire map for even a trace of where I come from… My search was in vein.

"I don't understand… How could Eagleland just vanish?" I asked.

"I don't know but I will do everything I possibly can to help you find it." Lucas said as he put his hand on my shoulder with a gentle and warm smile on his face. We both then turned our attention back to the map to make sure that we hadn't missed anything and yet… there was nothing to miss.


	2. Chapter 2: The Nightmare

A few hours had passed, and the evening soon faded away, the sky was a deep navy-blue and the moon was centred high in the sky.

Lucas and I had changed into some comfy clothes to sleep in. He was dressed in traditional looking pyjamas, the ones you'd see people wearing in movies and video games, the standard blue, striped pyjamas with a typical button up shirt and long and baggy trousers. I, on the other hand, was wearing a simple, purple pair of shorts with a black t-shirt that had a picture of a creature that I couldn't identify on it, this creature was round and was beige, it also had a very big nose and three strands of hair that were tied together with red ribbon.

"Thank you for letting me borrow these pyjamas, Lucas." I said with a puzzled expression on my face. "If you don't mind me asking… what is this creature on my shirt, I've never seen it before…"

"Oh! That's a mister Saturn…" Lucas said as if I was supposed to know what a Mr. Saturn is. "Their an alien race with a connection to PSI just like us, but no-one knows where they came from."

"By any chance… did they come from Saturn?" I said humorously.

Lucas and I then erupted into an uncontrollable laughter and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't stop… I'm not even sure why it was so funny… I guess we both just needed a laugh. I know I sure did after the day I had. However, I'm not sure why Lucas needed to laugh so badly.

"Lucas, I have a question." I said whilst wiping the tears of laughter away from my eyes.

"Sure, what is it?" Lucas responded in a giggly tone.

"Where are your parents? Shouldn't they be back by now?" I asked whilst still trying to stop laughing completely.

Lucas suddenly went dead silent. He appeared to be saddened by what I had asked. I guess this must had been the explanation for the in-depth story that his eyes told when we were back in Sunshine Forest. I now, deeply regretted asking Lucas this question, but my genuine curiosity got the better of me. Lucas then started crying a little bit with his eyes being partially burdened by the tears until one lone teardrop began to roll down his face.

Lucas rubbed his eyes. "my… um… my Mom… she died…" Lucas looked really upset... By this point, I now regretted asking Lucas this question more than ever because of the pain I made him relive but he soldiered on. "she died protecting me and my brother from a monster… my dad found the pain… unbearable… so he… err… he left me."

Lucas then stood up and approached the kitchen. "can I get you a drink or anything?" he asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject. As he walked away, he wiped the tears from his face and sniffled.

I didn't ask anymore questions after that, I couldn't make someone so young relive trauma like that. Although, one thing he said did make me wonder… Where is his brother?

Instead of asking anymore questions, I said "no thank you, I'm alright."

Lucas prepared himself a glass of water and drank it as fast as he could while he was in the kitchen and then he rubbed his face. This was one tough kid. Yes, he may seem weak for showing his emotions in such a way, but it takes a real man to stand up to your feelings and accept them the way he did.

"hey Lucas!" I asked while holding my breath just in case he was going to snap at me for pushing him too far.

"yeah?" he said with sorrow in his eyes.

"can you do any tricks with your psychic energy?" I asked as I breathed a sigh of relief that he was okay.

"tricks?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"well me and some of my friends learned how to manifest psychic energy and use it to do certain things like put people to sleep or make them do what we want. We also learnt how to weaponize PSI energy for protection."

"OOOOH! That's cool! How do you do that?" Lucas asked with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Well its quite simple once you get the hang of it. You start off by visualizing how you want the PSI energy to manifest and then you channel that energy through your body and into a more concentrated area like your hands and then you can manipulate it." I told.

"Wow! That's amazing!" Lucas exclaimed. "Can you show me?"

"of course, I can!" I said. "We will need to step outside though…"

Me and Lucas stepped out of the front door and into the front garden. Nothing but a white picket fence protected us from falling off the cliff and eventually to our deaths.

I told Lucas to stay on the porch, so he was at a safe distance, I then proceeded to concentrate the PSI energy in my body and then performed my signature attack… "PK FLASH!" I shouted as a bright green ball of psychic energy was expelled from my hands and into the air. I then opened my hands so that the ball would explode without damaging Lucas's house.

Lucas stood in awe of what he just witnessed and as you might expect, he had a million questions. He was so dumbfounded that he couldn't even speak, he just stood, blinking.

"So… whatcha think?" I asked with a huge grin on my face.

"…"

"Lucas?"

"Sorry…" he said. "I've just never seen anything like it… it was amazing… as if you can do that?"

"You mean WE can do that." I said smugly.

"but I… I… I don't know how… to do that." Lucas said. "I'm not even sure I can."

I looked at him puzzled. I wondered how he couldn't even believe in himself. I barely knew him at this point and yet even I could see the potential he possessed. The potential to be whoever he wanted to be, he could even be the most powerful warrior in existence. How do I know this? Well because I've never seen someone with so much pain in their eyes who has still managed to put a smile on their face for someone new. Would put their own emotions on hold for the sake of others. I knew he had suffered… I only had to look into his eyes to realise that.

"Sure, you can!" I said enthusiastically. "I can teach you and you could even create your own techniques after."

"Well what else can I do with these powers?" Lucas asked.

"Whatever you wanted to" I said. "My friend Paula can use pyrokinesis and my friend Poo can literally pull the stars out of the sky, Paula calls her attack PK FIRE and Poo calls his PK STARSTORM."

"do I have to put 'PK' in front of every attack I create?" Lucas said jokingly.

"well it is recommended if you want something cool to yell out when you use them…" I said smugly.

Lucas proceeded to approach me from the porch and then joined me in the front garden. I told him everything he needed to know to create his own attack and gave a motivational speech and soon, Lucas seemed pretty sure of himself.

Lucas began by placing his feet firmly on the ground, he then crouched down with his hands between his legs as if he was pulling a needle from the ground. A white mass of energy began to emerge from his hands and as soon as the energy was charged enough, Lucas leaped into the air and waved his hands above his head allowing a powerful surge of energy to be released while he yelled "PK FLASH". The energy surge from his hands manifested in a giant green ball just as mine had done and pulsated before it disappeared, it was clear that Lucas still needed to get the hang of it but for his first time using it, he did alright.

"There you go, Lucas, you did it!" I said with excitement.

"Wow… I kind of can't believe that I actually did that." He said with a proud look on his face. "Boy! After all of that focusing and practice, I'm beat, let's turn in." he said as he yawned.

"Yeah! Let's go to bed." I repeated.

Lucas bought in a blanket and a pillow for me to sleep with on the sofa, he told me I can read any book off of the shelf if I wanted to if I have trouble falling asleep but, luckily, I didn't need to occupy myself, I fell asleep as quickly as I had went to bed. Lucas on the other hand had trouble sleeping that night.

He laid awake thinking about the mysterious stranger he had sleeping on his couch as well as the world he came from… if you couldn't tell, I'm talking about me. One of the only things to stay on Lucas's mind that night was whether he would be able to help this boy from a different world get back to it.

Lucas laid in bed for about thirty minutes but couldn't fall asleep despite how tired he felt. He began to cough so he decided to go to the kitchen and get a drink of water to soothe his throat. Upon leaving the kitchen, he noticed that I kept tossing and turning aggressively while I slept leading Lucas to assume that I was having a bad dream.

"I wonder what he is dreaming about…" Lucas said as he closed his eyes and focused on establishing a telepathic link, so he could view my dream.

Lucas had succeeded, and the dream began to play in his mind's eye. It was no wonder that I was turning so aggressively given the nature of the dream.

Lucas began to see a world that was completely alien to him. This world was colourful overall, many of the buildings had brightly coloured rooves and every building was squarely shaped and either made out of painted planks of wood or brown bricks.

This world seemed to be very peaceful, it clearly had it's problems like most worlds, but it seemed it was mostly at peace.

The scene then changed to a view of Tazmily Village, except for one thing being off. There was a strange trio of people who were huddled in front of the well in the centre of the town. One of these people was a girl with curly blonde hair that had a big red bow tied into it that held half of the hair up and the other half down. She was wearing a pink dress that swung around her knees. To her left was a boy wearing a dark-turquoise suit with a white shirt and had a blonde bowl cut for his hair. He also had large round glasses on his face. He was clutching a gun in his hands and opposite him, to the right of the girl, was a small boy who had an almost bald head with the exception of a long, braided ponytail thing that protruded from his head.

The three of them were cowering in fear as a slim, grey being descended from the hill on the other end of a stone bridge. This hill had the scorched remains of a building that used to be there. It had a golden throne set above it instead.

_"__**hehehe…" **_chuckled the grey figure. **_"you never stood a chance… hehehe…"_**

The unknown figure raised both of his hands, pulled energy from his surroundings and pulsated a giant ball of energy into the ground of the village creating a humungous dome of fire and light that engulfed the entirety of the village and a small portion of the nearby forest and cabins in the woods.

As the dome of energy dissipated, this slim grey being hovered little way above the scorched ground chuckling loudly, at least now, Lucas had a better opportunity to see the figure.

The being was skinny with long legs, a long tail, pointy ears from his head and big black eyes with a big, menacing grin slapped across his face.

This being then shrouded itself in a ball of light and disappeared, reappearing in the afore-mentioned world atop a building with a large, colourful sign that read 'DRUG STORE' on it. From his vantage point, he could see the terrified faces of all of those around him who all cowered from the fear. There was one trio that Giegue was particularly focused on which was clear as Giegue had boxed them in using his powers to create a ring of blazing fire. This trio consisted of a woman with bright pink hair and a blue dress, a tall man with dark hair and pink trousers with a limp of some kind and a little brown dog who yelped a little.

**"****HEHEHE…" **the strange creature chuckled once more. **"ANY LAST WORDS?"**

"YEAH!" yelled the woman with pink hair. "GO F**K YOURSELF!"

**"****WELL SAID…"**

The creature once again summoned a ball of bright light and enveloped the entire world in a fiery inferno leaving nothing but the scorched remains of this once vibrant land and the souls now free from their bodies.

This creature then approached the point of view of the dream, it wasn't clear if it was meant to be like looking through a camera or what.

**"****I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE SHOW, NESS…" **began the creature. **"NO MATTER WHERE YOU RUN… I, GIEGUE, WILL FIND YOU…"**

Lucas was now so terrified that he began to panic, so much so that he could no longer sustain the psychic channel. He debated on whether to wake me up, but I soon stopped turning leading Lucas to assume that the terrible dream had subsided, with Lucas's mind slowly easing, he decided to go to bed and see if he could sleep… little did he know that the words of that dream were soon about to become reality.

While Lucas laid in bed that night replaying the graphic images from the dream in his mind… there was just one thing that didn't make any sense… this creature addressed Ness directly as if Ness was conscious, but how could that happen in a dream?


	3. Chapter 3: I know who you are

Lucas woke up that morning after having barely slept at all. He prepared his and my breakfast for that day and waited for me to wake up.

*YAWN*… "morning Lucas…. How did you sleep?" I asked.

"Not very well…" he responded cryptically. "Ness… um… do you remember anything… from last night… what you dreamt about?"

"No…" I said blissfully. "should I?"

"Oh… it's nothing to worry about… I was just wondering."

"Okay then… what's for breakfast?" I asked enthusiastically.

"We have some pancakes… some fried eggs and—" Lucas was cut off mid-sentence as a news headline caught his eye. It was a channel four news broadcast.

_"__Breaking news…. The pig mask army has struck again! The terrorist organisation was last seen blowing up a children's hospital in the NoWhere Islands… it is still unclear what their objectives are and who their leader is…"_

Lucas dropped a glass of orange juice that was in his hand due to the shock he experienced. He than began to cry hysterically. "Its… It's not fair…" he mumbled in between whimpers.

I was so confused. I had no idea who the pig mask army were or what they had done, but one thing was for certain, whatever it was had Lucas in tears…

"Lucas… Buddy… calm down… why are you so upset?" I asked concernedly.

"B… Because… they're the reason… th… that… my family…" Lucas struggled to breathe as he tried to speak in between his crying, the pain in his eyes was almost unpleasant to watch, I struggled not to draw a tear from watching it. "My… my m… Mom… they killed my mom…"

"Lucas…" I said quietly.

"She… she was innocent… she didn't deserve to die… no-one does…" Lucas then began to collect his thoughts and started to breathe steadily. "We were happy together… then they took our mom away from us… Then my brother, Claus, he went to avenge her… and then he fell off a cliff… my dad then left, and he took our dog with him… They hurt so many people when they started that fire in Sunshine Forest…"

"Oh Lucas…" Lucas's story had bought a tear to my eye, but I didn't want him to know so I could stay strong for him. It was silly, wasn't it? Me, trying to be strong for someone I barely knew… but that was what he needed at this time… someone to be strong for him… lord knows his dad wouldn't be.

"It wasn't just people they hurt either!" Said Lucas in a tone that suggested he was much less upset but still had a hint of 'can you believe this?'. "They turned a Drago, one of the most peaceful animals on Nowhere Island, into a killer robot… that poor creature…"

Lucas proceeded to tell me about the leads he had on the pig mask army and how he and his friends were ever so close to identifying the culprit behind the pig mask army and how they were going to take him out. Something about the dialogue that me and Lucas shared made me realize that his deep and unconditional love for the fellow man extended even to the animals of the world, these Dragos he spoke of, were perhaps the most innocent in all of this. As Lucas said, they never wanted to hurt anyone, there wasn't even a reason for it, but they were turned into nasty killing machines with no control over their actions, they were the reason that Lucas's mom died and yet, he wasn't even mad at the mecha Dragos, he was mad at the pig masks for ruining a perfectly gentle giant in the first place.

Lucas rambled on well into midday but, even after all of that, I still felt as though he was keeping something from me.

"Lucas?" I said.

"Yeah Ness?"

"You seem a little bit absent minded today… even before the news on TV… What's going on? I asked.

"well you don't seem to remember but I read your mind while you slept last night as you appeared to be having a nightmare and what I saw was… Frightening…" He responded.

"what did you see?"

"I saw… so many people… dying… So many cries for help that couldn't be answered… I saw people… who I assume are your friends from what you have told me… they were killed atop a building with a colourful sign that said, 'Drug store'. Then I saw… people… I know… they were killed along with the rest of the world… I can only assume that this was a vision…"

"do you mean… like a memory?" I asked in a panic. "wait… you said there were people in my dream that you knew… who were they?"

"well I couldn't see their faces, but I knew who they were…" said Lucas. "they're my friends… Kumatora and Duster and my dog, Boney… they're the ones who have been helping me take down the pig mask army. There were also some other people there… but… I don't know who they were…"

"wow…" I said in shock. "was there anything else?"

"Oh yeah… some weird monster." Lucas told. "It was like a human cat… it was grey… it said Giegie?.. Giegue?... Giygas? Something like that was coming…"

"** S**?" I shouted in shock.

It suddenly hit me like a lightning bolt out of the sky… It wasn't a memory nor was it some whacked out crazy nightmare… it was a vision of the future.

"But I… I…" I stuttered. "I defeated him… How is he alive?"

"Who is Giygas?" asked Lucas.

"The embodiment of evil itself… he's coming to finish me off… he's coming to do what he does… bring an end to ** G."**

"…" Lucas was stunned… he didn't know what to think… nor did he know what to say… "we have to… we have… to… beat him… we can beat him… right?"

"We can't… at least… not on our own…" I said as I began to accept the possibility that Giygas may win this time around.

"Wait… what if we could bring your friends here?" Lucas said.

"how would we do that?" I asked.

"well all we have to do is figure out how you got here and then we could bring them here…" Lucas told. "We'd have them and my own friends to help us… if they're as powerful as you say they are… then Giygas won't stand a chance."

"Maybe…" I said pessimistically.

About an hour passed while Lucas and I brainstormed ideas for how to bring my friends to us. After a seemingly endless phone call with someone named Kumatora, Lucas returned to the living room with a smile and an idea.

"So… My friends Kumatora and Duster are on their way and they have an idea that we can bring to life…" Said Lucas.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" I asked sceptically.

"well Kumatora is a psychic like us… with all of that excess psychic energy… we should be able to find a way to your world and to your friends."

"Well I think I know how I got here…" I said cryptically. "I have a technique called 'PK TELEPORT' but I sometimes have difficulty controlling it… maybe a surge in psychic energy caused me to teleport somewhere else… to here."

"That's great!" Lucas said. "If we can supply you with all the energy you need, you may be able to do it again—"

***KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK***

The front door swung open and in stepped a tall tom-boy with pink hair and what I would assume is a lanky hippy.

"WE'RE HERE!" Said a rather girly voice from the tom-boy body of a woman. "Where's the psychic?!"

Lucas and I stood up and greeted the guests, Lucas then proceeded to introduce me to his friends.

"Kumatora, Duster, this is Ness." Lucas said.

"Nice to meetcha!" Said Duster in a common American accent. "I'm Duster, I'm the muscle behind our little team—"

"**HA- IN YOUR DREAMS!" **said Kumatora in a mocking tone. "I'm Kumatora… I'm a princess but don't let that intimidate ya… just between you and I, Me and Lucas are the ones with the power."

After she said that, Kumatora looked up at Duster and smiled in a coy and bitchy way. It was entertaining to watch.

"Nice to meet you both…" I said nervously. "I'm Ness!"

"Okay!" Lucas interjected. "Let's get down to business…"

It was strange to see the shocking transformation that Lucas underwent in the presence of his friends, he went from being a shy and passive boy to a loud and cocky man.

"So, we need to figure out how we will get Ness's friends to our world, so they can help us defeat a new evil that has come." Said Lucas confidently.

"Wait!" yelled Kumatora. "This 'new evil', does it have anything to do with the pig mask army?"

"As far as we know… It doesn't have anything to do with this world… It did come from Ness's world though." Said Lucas.

"Wait? It came from Ness's world?" Kumatora questioned while eyeing Ness suspiciously. "If it came from Ness's world, and it's evil, then that must mean that Ness is evil… You know what we do to evil people…"

"Wait… Kumatora, NO! That's not what I meant—"

Kumatora picked up a solid oak chair and held it as if she was about to launch it. "You're going to wish you were never born kiddo!" Kumatora then threw the chair at me but luckily, I jumped out of the way in time.

Duster placed his hands on Kumatora's shoulders and said "Calm down! Seriously, Ness hasn't done anything wrong… he's a victim."

She then calmed down after, it seems that Kumatora and Duster had a relationship that ran deeper than mere friendship.

"Okay…" said Lucas in a tone that suggested he was trying to forget what had just happened. "Ness. Why don't we make our plan based on how you attacked Giygas the last time?"

"Okay then." I answered.

I then told the story of me and my heroic friends who risked our own lives to defeat Giygas…


	4. Chapter 4: Chaos Reigns

Lucas and his friends looked shocked by what I had just told them… almost as if they don't believe it was real. They did not say a word, they all just sat there staring at me like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"You and your friends did this by yourselves?" asked Duster.

"That's right." I answered.

"But… you're just kids…" said Kumatora. "How were you even that powerful?"

"wait? You don't believe me?" I asked.

"Well they may not but I do!" exclaimed Lucas. "from what I have seen of your power, it doesn't seem that farfetched to me."

"Thanks bud." I said appreciatingly.

"Okay then… what's OUR plan?" asked Kumatora.

"Well… Us three psychics are going to join hands and share our PSI energy, then we should be able to create a portal that links our world with yours." Said Lucas. "the only problem is that Ness is the only one who knows how to create a portal so we're going to have to somehow transfer our PSI to him."

"I think it'll work!" said Kumatora excitedly. "I can't wait to meet your friends, Ness."

"Wait!" interjected Duster. "Do we know if Giygas is already here?"

"Well if he was able to speak to Ness during his nightmare, then he must be in this world, right?" asked Lucas.

"I think so" I said.

"Well then?" Said Kumatora confidently. "Shall we?"

Kumatora, Lucas and I stepped outside into the front garden where little way bellows our feet, the waves were crashing against the cliffside. I think it was considerably windier that day. Kumatora joined hands with Lucas and Lucas held out his to mine. My heart started beating faster and faster, I don't know if I was nervous about holding hands with Lucas or if I was excited to see my friends again but holding hands with Lucas made me feel happy. I held out my own hand and joined it with Lucas's, we were ready to bring my world of the past to this world of the future.

"READY?" asked Lucas loudly. Kumatora and I nodded.

Within seconds, I began to feel an intense energy surge around my body, it made me wonder how powerful Kumatora and Lucas were, I don't know if they realised but the power, they shared almost overwhelmed me. As more and more of their power flooded my body, the air surrounding us began to glow and the grass around our feet began to sway with the pulsating energy from our bodies. The energy they shared charged me like a battery until I was ready to power something else.

Using this new power, I focused my PSI to an open spot next to the dirt road entrance to Lucas's house. I then began to concentrate all the PSI in my body that I produced myself as well as the energy that was shared with me to the tips of my fingers… It began to build up until I couldn't keep it there any longer. A powerful discharge of energy shot into the area of open land in which I was focusing and very soon a large blue portal with a swirling vortex appeared…

"Wow…" Whispered Lucas as he stood in awe of what stood before him.

In due time, a familiar sound of my friends screaming began to get louder and louder as it approached us and soon, out fell a pile up of my friends…

Paula was the first to stand up. She looked both relieved and shocked to see me. "Ness? Is that you?"

"Yeah it's me… aren't you happy I found you?" I asked.

"I AM RELIEVED TO SEE THAT YOU'RE OKAY, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE OPENED A—"

Just before Paula could finish her sentence, a grey figure appeared from the vortex, it looked just like the monster that Lucas had described from the dream, a humanoid cat, gerbil looking creature with large pointy ears and big black eyes and a very long tail.

"**At last… I have finally arrived…" **said the figure in a deep and unnerving voice.

The portal then closed behind him and the sky began to darken.

**"****This place… It is in the video game known only as Mother 3, is it not?" **asked the figure.

"OI! STOP BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL!"

**"****OH! SORRY MISTER AUTHOR… Anyways… Err—where were we?"**

"you were introducing yourself…" said Kumatora sceptically. "What are you?"

**"****Oh! I'm an alien…" **Said the figure cryptically. **"Funny thing is that I'm originally from the first game in the—"**

"SERIOUSLY! WHAT DID I SAY" cried a voice that came from nowhere… get it? Nowhere… like the islands… ha ha ha I'm so funny.

"Wow! That fourth wall has been destroy—" I whispered to Lucas as I was interrupted by the mysterious voice.

"DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE!" yelled the mysterious voice.

**"****Anyways… I really must thank you, Ness…"**

"Me? Why?" I asked in a panicked tone.

**"****Because if it hadn't been for your reckless use of your powers and your clear lack of intelligence, you… would never have bought me here."**

"what do you mean?" I asked. "You're not Giygas… so who are you?"

**"****Oh, you can't even grasp the identity of this form… 'Giygas' was nothing more than a mere shell of this form… a reckless… BABY… if you will. Thanks to the energy you used to manipulate time, I was able to revert to my true form… you soon will either bow to… or be killed by… **

** E"**

"we stopped you then and we will stop you now!" cried Paula. She pulled her arms back and then expelled them forward as she yelled "PK FIRE" …

Nothing happened…

"Wait a second… what happened to my powers? They're gone!" said Paula.

Giegue began to laugh hysterically. **"Oh, my… An admirable attempt to destroy me, alas, your efforts were for nought." **Giegue then spun around and smacked Paula with his tail sending her flying across the garden, he then kicked Poo and Jeff who were unconscious in the same direction that he had previously sent Paula in. **"While her efforts to defeat me proved to be meaningless, her endeavours were yet more than what you meagre Earth people could muster. She was foolish… to not understand that in this form… I am unstoppable. No matter how hard you persist, nor the number of psychics you gather… you mortals have no hope of defeating me. I have an overwhelming surplus of power. Keep this in your putrid minds… if I continue to breathe, the sun will never bless its light upon this world, as it will be devoured in darkness by the dreary clouds of the heavens above, and soon enough, the depths of hell itself will engulf your lowly existence. You have no hope for salvation, no-one will come and save you from your inevitable destruction. Should you surrender, your deaths shall be painless and swift. Should you persist to try to defeat me, however, take the last of your time to pray to your pathetic deity. I should warn you, that even HE will not spare you…" **

Giegue disappeared in a flash of light to an unknown location but the skies did not return to their previous state, Paula, Jeff and Poo laid there, unconscious and the three psychics and Duster stood there speechless… frightened by the words of that beast…


	5. Chapter 5: The Fallout of Giegue

_This part of the story will vary in perspective_

_This part is 3__rd__person_

Ness and Lucas tried to wake up their unconscious comrades using some water from the kitchen indoors. Paula, Poo and Jeff soon came around and Duster filled them in on the events that had transpired while they were unconscious.

Ness looked over and saw Lucas in the corner, Lucas was covering his eyes and simultaneously whimpering, ness assumed that he was upset and frightened by the events that had just transpired.

Instead of asking if he was okay or if he needed something, Ness simply put his arm around Lucas's shoulders and comforted him. The tears began to stream down his face as he said "how are we going to beat him? … I… I… I… can't lose anyone else… I can't lose… you".

"what do you mean by that?" asked Ness.

Lucas dried his eyes and looked up at Ness almost in a panic. "Oh! Um… its nothing, I just… think you're… um… special."

Ness smiled showing as many teeth as he possibly could. "I think you're special too" said Ness with a sparkle in his eyes.

"—Guys!" interjected Paula. "I've lost my powers… we're one psychic down, what are we gonna do?"

"Uh-Oh!" cried Lucas. "That's not good!"

Ness put his fingers to his chin as if he was deep in thought, suddenly, he took his fingers from his chin and snapped them.

"Lucas!" said Ness excitedly. "how did you get your powers?!"

"Oh! I bathed in a hot spring with another psychic named Ionia and she gave me my powers." Told Lucas.

"Can she do it again?" asked Ness.

"Well I don't know where she is!" Lucas responded disappointingly.

"—WE DON'T NEED IONIA" interjected Kumatora. "I'm a magypsy just like her! I can get your powers back… come with me…"

"Um… Okay then" replied Paula.

Kumatora then led Paula to the hot springs to heal her wounds and to get her powers back.

"I'm sure that's going to be fine…" said Ness humorously.

Lucas giggled in response. Lucas and Ness then looked at each other replaying the events of their moment in their heads. Deep down they had begun to feel for each other, they just didn't know It yet.

Kumatora had hold of Paula's hand and was dragging her in the direction of the hot springs in sunshine forest, Paula seemed to be a little cautious about where they're going…

"WE'RE HERE!" yelled Kumatora enthusiastically.

"Oh joy!" replied Paula.

"Okay then… take off your clothes and get in." said Kumatora.

"Um… okay I guess" said Paula reluctantly.

Paula proceeded to remove her clothes and then proceeded to cover her privates with her arms, she then stepped into the steamy, cloudy water. She then untied the ribbon in her hair and then used it to tie up her hair, so it didn't get wet. Kumatora then followed the same process as Paula except she didn't appear to care about covering up as she got into the hot spring.

"Wow! This water feels really nice!" exclaimed Paula.

"Yeah! It sure does!" replied Kumatora. "Okay… that's enough relaxing, now let's get your powers back."

"Okay then…" said Paula.

"alright then, close your eyes and hold your breath as long as you possibly can under the water and I'll let my psychic energy recharge you."

"Okay" said Paula.

Paula inhaled deeply and then disappeared under the water, Kumatora then closed her eyes and let her psychic energy seep out into the water and recharge Paula's psychic powers.

About 40 seconds had passed and Paula burst out of the water and took a deep breath in.

"I'm… sorry… I… couldn't… hold… it… anymore…" said Paula as she gasped for air.

"it should be fine, don't worry" Kumatora replied. "Do you have your powers back?"

"I think so" said Paula optimistically.

"Why don't you try and use your telepathy or something?" said Kumatora.

Paula then closed her eyes and focused on opening a telepathic channel with Ness…

_"__Hello? Ness, can you hear me?"_

_"__Paula? Is that you?" asked Ness in return._

_"__Oh my! It worked! I got my powers back!" said Paula excitedly._

_"__Yeah that's great but, we now have a new problem, you guys need to come back as soon as you can." Said Ness cryptically._

"We need to get back!" said Paula in a panic.

"Why?" asked Kumatora.

"I don't know".

Paula and Kumatora then stepped out of the hot springs and dried themselves off, they then put their clothes on and left in a rush.

Paula and Kumatora re-joined their group in as little time as possible, they found that Ness, Lucas and Duster were standing around Poo and Jeff who were sitting on the floor with a dazed expression on their faces. The sky was still dark by this point, but it was beginning to get darker as it was night fall.

"What's… Huff… going… Huff… On?" said Paula as she gasped for air.

"_Huh! She couldn't even handle that short run… How did she even tackle Giygas in the first place" _Kumatora thought to herself? "yeah! What's happening?"

Lucas and Ness looked at Duster and then all three of them looked at Poo and Jeff with concerned expressions. Lucas inhaled like he was about to speak but he remained silent.

"Um… Well… we've figured out that travelling through space time like we have done, causes… problems…" said Ness ominously.

"What kind of problems?" asked Kumatora concernedly.

"Well every time someone travels through space time like that, they lose something essential…" Lucas said worriedly. "As we saw earlier, Paula lost her powers, Poo has lost his sight and Jeff has lost his intelligence, just like how Ness lost his memories."

"Well we can reverse it, right?" Paula questioned. "I mean, we managed to get my powers back and Ness got his memory back."

"Well we'll try anything we can think of, but I don't think it will be as easy as it was for you two." Said Duster depressingly.

"Don't be alarmed Captain…" said Poo calmly. "Although my sight has diminished, I am still close to my PSI powers, I haven't lost them, so I shouldn't need to rely on my sight too much."

"Well okay then…" Ness said. "But we will get your sight back!"

"Oh Captain, you shouldn't focus on me too much, put more of your resources into fixing Jeff, you may not be able to devise a cunning plan to take down Giegue without him."

"Hey Ness!" Exclaimed Lucas. "Why does Poo call you 'Captain'?"

"Oh! Because I was prophesised to be the leader of our group that would destroy the embodiment of evil…" Ness told. "Giygas was the embodiment of evil… but we failed in destroying him, so I wonder how much of that prophecy was true—"

"Don't worry!" said Lucas as he put his hand on Ness's left shoulder. "you have a second chance now, you'll get him this time and now you have us to help you!"

"It is quite the formidable team!"

"Exactly! Giegue won't know what hit him."

The kind and encouraging words of Lucas seemed to cheer Ness up a lot. Ness and Lucas's friendship was the stuff of legend. They may have only known each other for a few days now but they were already getting close. Lucas knew that someday soon, he would have to say goodbye to Ness. Ness was an alien to this world, he didn't belong here… he had his own family, his own friends… his own world. Lucas was certain that Ness's family would miss him dearly if he stayed or was killed in the soon to follow, fight with Giegue. Lucas couldn't let that happen, but Lucas didn't want to say goodbye either. Lucas had to decide whether he was going to be selfish and ask Ness to stay or to do the selfless thing and let Ness return to the other people who loved him.

_This part of the story will now be told from Lucas's point of view._

The sun rose that morning behind a thick wall of dark clouds that shadowed the entire planet in cold, unforgiving darkness that even the sun's rays could not break. Ness woke up before me that morning, he was busy meditating and expanding his mind and his PSI powers. Poo, Jeff and Paula were still asleep in various places throughout the house. Ness must had heard my bare feet slapping against the creaky, wooden steps.

_"__Lucas?" asked Ness telepathically._

_"__Yeah! It's me."_

_"__You don't have to stand there, come and join me in meditation."_

_"__Okay" I answered._

I sat down next to Ness with a cushion beneath me. He told me to clear my mind and to breathe in and out slowly.

_"__This is really relaxing" I said to Ness telepathically._

_"__I know right!"_

_"__It kind of makes me wish that no-one else was here…"_

_"__Yeah!"_

_"__Ness? Would you mind if I asked you something?"_

_"__No, go ahead!"_

_"__Are you scared? Ya know, about the whole Giegue situation?"_

_"__Well… to be honest… I am…"_

_"__Well that's good to know…"_

_"__How is it?"_

_"__It's just comforting to know that someone as strong and cool as you still get scared… it makes me feel better about being scared." _

_"__Oh… well… I'm glad my fear makes YOU feel better."_

_"__Sorry… that was rude… I'm sorry"_

Ness then took hold of my hand, I don't know why but it was nice. I could feel his pulse in my hand, it was fast, almost as if his fear had evolved into panic and doubt.

_"__I bought Giegue here, it's my job to get rid of him… I should never have put that stress on you, it wasn't my place."_

_"__Yeah but Ness… I wouldn't be helping you if I didn't want to… you've become quite special to me, I've never had a friend like you and I want to be with you and help you as much as I can"_

_"__I'm special to you?" asked Ness curiously._

_"__Yeah! I really like you… I want to spend lots of time with you before you leave…"_

_"__Leave? Oh yeah! I kinda forgot that I'm literally from a different world"_

_"__yeah…" I said sadly._

The thought of Ness leaving me made me sad… but why? I hadn't known him that long, he just seemed… different. He's kinder… it's… like I've known him all my life… and like he's known me… I really enjoy being around him… I… Don't want to have to say goodbye… I… Want to be with him if I can.

Paula had woken up and came through to the living room. She saw that me and Ness sitting together with our eyes closed and our hands intertwined, she longed to ask what was going on but instead she remained silent and backed away as she respected the peace she could see in our faces, our problems just melted away in the presence of each other.

Paula then tried to intercept the telepathic channel and she succeeded.

_"__So… What we talkin' 'bout?" said Paula in her thick, southern accent._

"Gah!" Yelled Ness and I out loud.

"Did I interrupt somethin'?" said Paula with a grin on her face that extended from one of her ears to the other.

"UH!... NO! OF COURSE NOT!" Said Ness nervously.

"YEAH!" Lucas replied innocently.

"Well that's what you say…" Paula said slyly.

Paula looked over to Poo's sleeping body and then she looked over to Jeff.

"It's not fair…" Paula said disappointedly. "We come here to save the world and we're punished for it and someone comes here to destroy the world and he comes through unharmed…"

Lucas snapped his fingers excitedly.

"I've got an idea!" Lucas said excitedly, around this time, Poo and Jeff woke up. "What if we opened another wormhole that didn't go anywhere and then we can have Kumatora use healing on Poo and Jeff, it could heal Poo's eyes and Jeff's mind."

"That's not a bad idea!" exclaimed Ness.

"As long as the wormhole doesn't go anywhere, this will work!" Said Paula.

"Captain, what's going on?" asked Poo.

"We've got a plan to fix you both!" said Ness.


	6. Chapter 6: Putting the Plan In Motion

Ness, I and Paula gathered the team up and we discussed the plan. Kumatora gave the okay for her healing and Paula Ness and I were ready to open the wormhole. Ness and I had already opened a wormhole previously and Paula were already familiar with the technique, so this was going to be easy.

Poo and Jeff were sitting on the floor next to us, of course Poo would need to be guided towards the wormhole and, although Jeff had not spoken since he came out of the wormhole as he didn't know how, we believed he understood the plan, he understood that he would have to step into the wormhole to be fixed.

"Everyone ready?" asked Ness.

Paula and I nodded and Kumatora and Poo replied in agreement. Jeff moaned in agreement.

Ness, Paula and I held hands and began to share power as we had done before, and Ness then opened a wormhole with the swirling vortex as before.

"Captain? How do we know that I won't lose access to my PSI?" asked Poo.

"Well we don't but hopefully you won't lose it and if worse comes to worse, we can get you your powers back the same way we got Paula's back…" Ness said calmly.

"Okay then" replied Poo.

Jeff then stepped into the wormhole and was then followed by Poo who was guided by Kumatora. Kumatora then gathered the healing energy in her hands and pulsated it over the wormhole which then engulfed the two heroes inside it. They then stepped out excitedly. The plan had appeared to work as Poo stepped out on his own and Jeff appeared to be fully aware of what was going on.

"Sooo…. Did it work?" asked Kumatora excitedly.

"Well I can see, Princess Kumatora, so it must have." Said Poo charmingly.

"And I'm no longer unable to speak and I can do simultaneous equations in my head while coming up with an elegant design for a new weapon that can both protect me and hurt my enemies." Said Jeff in a sophisticated accent.

"Okay then! We are back!" said Paula excitedly. "Now we can come up with a plan to take down Giegue and the pig mask army!"

Paula, Jeff, Poo and Kumatora went inside the house for a bite to eat and I stayed out, staring into the horizon from which I could view from the cliffside which my house was built on.

"Aren't you coming, Lucas?" asked Ness

"Huh!... Oh yeah, I'll be right with you." I said coldly.

Ness opened a telepathic cannel…

_"__You Do know I'm a psychic… I can tell when something is bothering you… Do I need to read your mind?"_

_"__It's nothing, Ness, I'm just thinking about what happened earlier… between us…"_

_"__Oh yeah… THAT"_

_"__Were you scared or do you… Like me… Like that?"_

_"__Well… Um—"_

"ARE YOU TWO COMING IN OR WHAT?" Shouted Kumatora rudely.

"Oh yeah! Now coming!" Ness answered nervously.

I looked at him nervously and he looked back at me, we both started walking in to the house, I longed to ask if his heart was beating as fast as mine, but I was afraid to hear the answer. Afraid to be disappointed, disappointed to know that he thought of me as a friend, but I thought of him as so much more…


	7. Chapter 7: More than Friends

Kumatora had invited Duster around that day and they had both decided to stay the night. We were short on places to sleep that night, Kumatora and Duster said they were happy to share a bed if they had to but that still left someone without a place to sleep.

"I can share with Lucas and then everyone has a place to sleep" Said Ness eagerly.

I almost inhaled my drink at that time as the room started spinning and my heart started racing. I had a hollow sinking feeling in my stomach. My pupils dilated, and my face felt flustered. I felt dizzy and scared and excited all at once.

"Well I guess so… Only if it is alright with you…" I replied awkwardly.

"Okay that's all good then… everyone okay with the arrangements?"

We all nodded in agreement, I didn't want to let on that the thought of sharing a bed with Ness excited me, not like that! I just like to be close to him, so I can hang on to the precious moments that we have left together. I never want to have to let go of him, not literally, just, I feel really close to him.

Nightfall soon came, and the skies darkened quickly, the temperature fell and there was an icy chill in the air, it was going to be a cold night. I wondered if he would shiver and need some warmer clothes to sleep in or more blankets, but with nearly every bed in the house occupied, there were no blankets to spare and no spare showers or anything like that. There are only two showers in this entire house and I'm pretty sure that no-one was willing to share one.

Ness and I were in my bedroom. We had just changed into our pyjamas and were preparing to go to sleep in the same bed. Ness was wearing a very similar pyjama outfit as before, except this time, it was a different t-shirt that I loaned him this time round, the other t-shirt was dirty by now, so he was wearing one that was green and had a picture of my dog on it, my dog Boney. I was wearing my second pair of pyjamas that were identical to my others, but that was the way I liked it.

I positioned a pillow at each end of the bed, one end for me to sleep at and one end for Ness to sleep at. We both climbed under the same thick and warm duvet and snuggled up trying to stay warm. Ness kept kicking me accidentally for a few minutes but then he found a comfortable position to sleep in without having to move that much.

I opened a telepathic channel, so I could talk to Ness…

_"__Ness?"_

"_Yeah Lucas_?"

"_I was just wondering… what was your answer… you know… what we talked about earlier…"_

_"__well I do… but I was scared… to tell you… if you didn't feel the same…"_

"_Oh really!... Well… I… Like you too"_

_"__Oh… Yeah?"_

_"__I was scared that you didn't like me like that… I didn't want to hear that you didn't like me"_

_"__You thought I wouldn't like you?" asked Ness._

_"__Well yeah…" I replied._

_"__Why?"_

_"__I think you're too cool for me…"_

_"__You really think I'm cool?"_

_"__Yeah" I responded in an embarrassed tone._

_"__Well I think you're cool too" said Ness._

Our eyes met from atop the duvet, we did nothing but stare into each other's eyes. I felt like I connected with Ness on a spiritual level that night.

_"__Ness?"_

_"__Yeah?" _

_"__I just want you to know…"_

_"__Know what?"_

_"__I… I… I… Um… I… I… Lo… Lo… Lo…"_

_"__What?" asked Ness both impatiently and nervously._

I had a lump of emotion in my throat even though I wasn't speaking. I longed to tell him how I _really _felt but I was scared… I couldn't bare the possibility of my love rejected. I've never _loved_ anyone like I love Ness, yeah sure I love Kumatora and Duster like they're my family, but I love Ness… differently… but I didn't think could love a boy… romantically.

_"__It's nothing… sleep well okay…"_

_"__Yeah okay, you too" said Ness disappointedly._

I think Ness knew that I was holding back, I don't think he knew how I felt, but then again, he is a psychic, so he could easily find out. We both drifted off to sleep that night with our hearts beating ten times as fast as it should have been.


	8. Chapter 8: The Face Of The Pigmasks

_This part of the story will now be told from Ness's point of view_

Lucas woke up long before me that morning. I don't know if he could sense the psychic disturbance in the air, but I could, so could Kumatora, Poo and Paula. One of the showers was already in use that morning with the only available shower being next to Lucas's bedroom, he and Kumatora were arguing over who needed to use it more…

"I don't care how long it has been since you showered…" yelled Kumatora. "I had to sit in my own filth when I was in that hot spring because I didn't want Paula to wash my back!"

"Well this is MY house and I let you stay here FOR FREE…" retorted Lucas. "Plus… you're a girl, you'll take forever, and your bright pink hair will be all over the soap once you're done!"

"That's SO offensive! Just because I'm a girl, you think I don't have the right to shower—"

"Okay… what's going on?" I asked nervously.

"This Butt-wad is trying to claim MY SHOWER despite it being my freaking house… Why can't you just queue up like the others down stairs?" protested Lucas.

"BECAUSE!" answered Kumatora. "I am an adult and they are all children! It's so weird!"

"Oh yeah… _you're an adult…_" responded Lucas. "and yet, you're acting like A BABY!"

"You know I need to shower too, right?" asked Ness.

"OH GREAT! ANOTHER PERSON TO HAVE TO WAIT FOR!" yelled Kumatora.

"I don't mind waiting—" I tried to interject but it was difficult to get a word in edgeways.

The two began to argue all over again… the argument this time round was so frantic and loud, it was like watching two people arguing in another language.

"Okay… okay, HOLD UP!" yelled Kumatora.

"What is it now?" I asked frustratedly.

"I will wait if…" said Kumatora cryptically.

"If what?" asked Lucas.

"If you two share the shower!" said Kumatora as she started giggling and hiding her blushing face in her hand.

Lucas and I did nothing but look at each other nervously.

"WE CAN'T SHARE!" I yelled.

"YEAH! THE SHOWER IS TOO SMALL!" yelled Lucas.

"Oh hey! Why don't we wash up in the hot springs, we can have a nice day relaxing and it will make us feel good, or better yet, you two could go…"

"WHA!?" yelled me and Lucas at the same time.

I didn't want to let on that the thought of sharing a hot spring with Lucas excited me. It would be the alone time that we needed so desperately to talk things over after last night and decide where we should go from here. I was certain about the way I felt about him… it was nothing less than love… also, he wasn't the worst looking person I have met, he certainly appealed to me more than any girl had done, of course, I wasn't sure of how to broach a subject like that with someone that I knew just over a week, but I figured it will only be weird if he didn't feel the same, last night, we established we like each other so what's the harm in trying?

"Yeah! You two go use the hot springs and I will stay here and shower, sound good?" said Kumatora eagerly.

"Well I guess so then…" said Lucas reluctantly, but it seemed that upon looking me in the face, he cheered up about the situation, he knew what this could mean to us.

_"__Those two are going to make such a cute couple, I can't even! I wonder if they know I was listening the entire time last night?" _Kumatora thought to herself.

Me and Lucas kept our pyjamas on and took some clean clothes with us to the hot springs, we also took some shampoo and some body wash. Lucas even bought a couple of towels that were hung on his arms. We then snuck out of the log cabin and made our way to the hot springs in sunshine forest.

Kumatora had finally stepped out of the shower and wrapped her waist in a fluffy white towel and then she did the same with her hair. She opened the door and saw Paula standing there with her arms folded and one of her feet lightly tapping on the ground.

"So… did you send them to the hot springs?" asked Paula. "You know… like we discussed?"

"You know it girl!" said Kumatora. "The Nesscas ship will sail soon enough…"

They both started giggling and rubbing their hands together and whisper-chanting 'Nesscas'.

Poo observed from around the corner, he watched and watched but couldn't understand anything that the girls talked about, 'what is shipping? What is Nesscas' he thought to himself. Since he was unable to understand anything, he left and joined up with Jeff and Duster.

"I'm a little mad that you didn't wait for me before you sent them… after all, I ship 'em too ya know!" said Paula.

"Well I couldn't wait, I had an awesome opportunity and if I waited, they would have not gone together…" explained Kumatora.

"Well okay then, just let me know when we're putting phase two of our plan in motion, okay?"

"Yeah sure… You mean, when we—"

"Yep!" interjected Kumatora.

They started giggling all over again, no-one knows what this phase two of their plan was.

Me and Lucas had finally arrived at the hot springs, my heart was racing, and my head felt dizzy, I don't know if I was nervous about talking to Lucas about my feelings or nervous about seeing him without a shirt… regardless, I was nervous.

I could feel my face getting flustered as my pulse got faster and faster, I don't know if it showed or Lucas thought it was due to the heat from the hot springs.

I removed my shirt and my shoes until I was wearing nothing but my shorts and my socks… I didn't want to strip down completely, not until Lucas had done as well, we both stood wearing nothing but our shorts and our socks, we locked eyes for a second and then we removed our socks and our shorts. I eyed Lucas up for a second and I have to say, although he wasn't overly muscular or overly skinny, he had a surprisingly nice body, I don't think he realised that.

I removed my last layer and slipped into the hot springs before Lucas turned around, I didn't want him to see my parts, I looked away from him, so I didn't see his.

The water was so hot and cloudy with the natural minerals dissipated throughout the hot spring. Lucas buried his body in the hot water, way up to his neck, I did the same, we both hung our heads at the sides of the springs and closed our eyes, letting a gentle sigh escape our lips.

_"__Hey Lucas?"_

_"__Yeah?"_

_"__I was just wondering… are you okay? After your argument with Kumatora, you've hardly said a word."_

_"__Oh yeah! I'm fine, I just don't like to get riled up like that… seeing the person I become when I get angry, it scares me, it's like a completely different person taking over and I can't control him."_

_"__I get that… it's like when I'm absolutely terrified. I lose all control over my body and usually let something bad happen as a result… that powerless feeling is awful."_

_"__Ness?"_

_"__Yeah…"_

_"__You know… that I like you a lot, right?"_

_"__Yeah… I like you a lot too!"_

_"__You do?"_

_"__Of course I do… you're perfect."_

Lucas started to blush as I had said those words, he knew that they were from the heart and 100% sincere at that.

_"__Aww… that's sweet… I think you're better than perfect." Lucas said to me telepathically._

I opened my eyes and saw that Lucas had edged closer to me and was sitting by my side. I suddenly felt a light pressure on my hand that rested at the bottom of the hot spring…

_"__Lucas?"_

_"__Yeah?"_

_"__Is that your hand?"_

_"__Oh yeah… sorry!"_

Lucas then removed his hand from mine and placed it gently beside mine.

_"__Actually, it was kind of… nice…" I said, hoping for him to put his hand back. He did not so I took his hand in mine._

_"__You're right! It is nice" said Lucas as he gripped my hand under the soothing bath._

We laid there, soaking in the water for a good ten minutes, all the while, my hand was intertwined with Lucas's and vice versa.

"Hey! Can you see anything?" whispered a familiar southern voice.

"No… it's too steamy, wait a second!" whispered another familiar voice.

Kumatora and Paula were resting atop a tree branch in the immediate vicinity of the hot springs. The tree rustled slightly with their additional weight but stood sturdy, nonetheless.

"Look! There they are!" whispered Kumatora.

"I see 'em!" cried Paula very quietly.

"They're just sitting there?" remarked Kumatora.

"Do you think they're holding hands… Oh my god, that'd be so cute" squealed Paula.

"Wouldn't it!" whispered Kumatora.

They just sat there for quite a while, observing me and Lucas, waiting and hoping for something 'juicy' to happen, of course nothing did.

Lucas and I then began to approach the exit of the hot spring, at the same time, Kumatora and Paula frantically scurried down the tree they sat on and retreated back to Lucas's house in an attempt to seem innocent in their actions, a large group of leaves fell from that same tree which alerted Lucas and me.

"What was that?" asked Lucas.

"I don't know, probably some animal." I said assumingly.

We both shrugged it off and then we dried off our bodies and put our clean clothes on. I finished getting dressed before Lucas, so I took that time to consider what had just happened between me and Lucas. I felt really giddy for a few moments and then proceeded to blush. I then shook it off and acted like nothing was on my mind.

"Ready to go?" Lucas asked.

I nodded in response and me and Lucas proceeded to walk back to his house to meet up with the group… little did we know we were about to walk in on some very depressing news.

Me and Lucas burst though the front door whilst laughing, we had just entered in on some breaking news. An emergency broadcast of the news was playing on channel 4 again in the kitchen.

_Breaking news! [insert town name here] is under siege from the pig mask army… the death toll is believed to be in the hundreds…_

Lucas had a mortified look on his face as he stared at the television screen.

"We… We need to go now… Ness! You can teleport us there!" cried Lucas.

It was almost as if the entire team was here and ready for action by intelligent design. Duster pulled out a slab of wood that he was ready to use, Jeff pulled out a gun that he had been working on since he got his intelligence back, Paula, Poo and Kumatora charged some psychic energy in their fingers to symbolically show that they were ready. Everyone now looked to me to get them to the battle field.

I focused the PSI in my body to create a wormhole that would transport me and my friends to [insert town name], we were all ready for a good fight.

The wormhole opened before all of us and Lucas eagerly jumped through, the rest of us soon followed.

We appeared in the town centre of [insert town name. We stood amongst massacred bodies and mortal peril. The streets ran red with its citizen's blood and the screams from afar. Fires spread across all the buildings and pig masks ran around crazily, there was no direction that one could turn in which they would not see a pig mask.

"Someone grab a pig mask and we can find out who their leader is…" Yelled Kumatora.

Jeff then whipped out his phaser and set it to stun… He then shot the nearest pig mask he could see. A small ball of light appeared from the barrel of the gun and wrapped the pig mask in a paralysing string of electricity. The pig mask then began to scream in pain.

Lucas then stepped forward to read the mind of the pig mask to determine who their leader is…

Lucas's face tensed as he delved deep into the memories of the pig mask. His eyes then opened with a shocked and excited expression in his eyes.

"Oh my god!" Lucas said quietly.

"What is it?" asked Duster nervously.

"I know who it is… the leader of the pig masks…"

"Who is it?" I asked.

"I don't know the name, but I know the face and I know where to find him…"

"Where?" asked Kumatora.

"Thunder Tower…" said Lucas ominously.

"We should get back now, before the rest of the pig masks come to get us…" said Paula.

"Good idea." Responded Poo.

In response, I opened another wormhole to take us back to Lucas's house and we all jumped through it quickly, one after the other.


	9. Chapter 9: Nice to meet you, Porky

_This part of the story will now be told from Lucas's point of view._

After the dramatic events of the day, we all returned to my house where we then had refreshments and then began to discuss our plan to take down the leader of the pig masks.

Jeff suggested we create some kind of bomb to use against the leader that would also destroy the lair of the pig masks. Kumatora suggested psychic torture, but that notion was very quickly denied by the rest of the group… it was too harsh a punishment. Poo suggested that this leader of the pig masks be left alone as fate would soon come to claim him for his heinous acts against the people. Karma would soon make the pig mask leader repent for his crimes. Most of the ideas proposed by the group were refused as some of them seemed far too harsh and others proposed doing nothing and focusing on Giegue instead. I was never going to allow that. There was far too much history between me and them, I needed to get my vengeance for my mother and all the innocent people who were killed in their wake. I knew what I wanted to do… I wanted to kill the person responsible for my mother's death… and I was going to.

"Why don't we simply find the guy and just kill him?" I asked maliciously.

"Do we _have _to kill him?" asked Poo nervously.

"but you were _okay _with killing Giygas?" I responded.

"Giygas was quite literally, the embodiment of evil. What other choice did we have?"

"And is someone who started a terrorist organisation that has slaughtered hundreds of people, not evil?" I asked in a sly tone.

"Well—"

"**NO!**" Kumatora interjected. "He is evil, and we have to stop him. If we let him live, he will only kill more and more innocent people. We can't let that happen."

"I agree with Princess Kumatora" said Jeff. "It is only right that we offer retribution for his crimes and for running a terrorist organisation and committing mass genocide, I'd say that the death penalty is a fitting punishment."

"That is a fair point, Jeff." Said Poo. "However, I wouldn't feel right about ending another being's life. Anyway, since when did we play judge, jury and executioner?"

"It's not about that." told Jeff. "it's about protecting the innocent people of this world and preventing anymore from being slaughtered."

"So that settles it then…" I said rather aggressively. "we will kill the person responsible for creating and leading the pig mask army."

Of course, I wouldn't feel right about ending someone else's life, but this guy… he needed to die… someone _this _evil, someone who could take away hundreds of lives with no remorse… someone like that… **has no soul**.

We knew what we had to do and when the time came… we would be ready to do what needed to be done. However, what Poo said made me question whether our actions would be for the right reasons… ending someone else's life… wouldn't that make us just as evil as the person we were seeking to destroy?

I was never the kind of person to question the morality of others as well as my own… even from a young age, I couldn't help but see the best in everyone, even if they were horrible to me. I couldn't ever wish ill will against anyone and now I'm considering taking a life… was the primal urge to destroy life within me all along? Was I ready to take a life since I was born? After taking another life… would I have the innate desire to take another?

"Hey Lucas?" asked Ness curiously.

"yeah?" I responded.

"Where is thunder tower?"

"Oh! I'm not really sure… Hold on…" I answered.

I then searched the farthest reaches of my mind, so I could pick up on any residual energy that I could create a psychic channel between myself and the pig mask that I had previously read the mind of.

I could see a very wide road… it was long and surrounded by a metal fencing. On my side I could see a dense forest which a shade of dark green. The forest was so dense that it even prevented the sunlight from touching the ground, it was so dark that red spotty mushrooms grew on the floor of the forest among other white button mushrooms. In between both of these great sights was a gargantuan tower that stood so tall that I could barely see the top of it. It was quite the architectural marvel. Having seen this tower, I was confident that I could identify the rough location of the tower ready for our attack.

"Well?" Ness asked impatiently.

"I think I know where it is" I responded confidently.

I then pulled out a map and began searching for a very wide and long highway that was parallel to a dense forest that had no gaps in it. I believed that I had found it.

"I think this is it" I told. "it is in between a highway that is literally called 'The Highway' and Murasaki Forest… that's where we'll find Thunder Tower."

"Are you sure that's it?" asked Jeff uncertainly.

"Yeah… I'm pretty sure." I added.

"Well if Lucas is sure… then I am too." Stated Ness. "I trust him, and I think you all should too."

I looked at Ness with such sparkle in my eyes as possible as all the words I could muster were simply two words that easily could be mistaken for an empty sentiment, but Ness couldn't even fathom how much I appreciated his kind words.

"Thank you" I said in a monotonal voice… I didn't want to say anything else as what Ness and I had discussed last night was more of a sensitive matter and was private, nonetheless. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if all the other psychics in our group already knew about my feelings for Ness.

"Well okay then" said Jeff in an unconvinced voice. "As long as we know where we're going."

Paula pulled Kumatora aside and out of the room, something was on her mind and she felt she needed to talk to someone about it.

"Hey Kumatora?" asked Paula.

"Yeah?"

"where are we at with phase two?"

"Well we know what their favourite foods are… but how will we get them to indulge in a _romantic candle lit dinner?_" asked Kumatora.

"We could make sure that the house is empty, we prepare the dinner, let them come home to their favourite foods and then they'd sit and eat, then they fall in love… hehehe!" proposed Paula

"you numb skull! They're already in love!" said Kumatora as she whacked Paula on the back of her head.

"Hey! That was mean!" cried Paula as she rubbed the back of her head. "They can fall deeper in love anyways!"

"Well they're in love with each other… they just need a little push in the right direction…"

"And that's why we're here!"

"Yeah… not to mention my shota sensors are on point" said Kumatora smugly with a grin on her face. "I'm usually right about this sort of thing… ha-ha… he-he."

"Thank god… have any of your ships sailed before?" said Paula.

"Not in real life because I've never had anyone to ship…" said Kumatora disappointedly. "Most of my ships in video games and Anime have sailed… there's still a few that I'm waiting on though."

They both started giggling as if any other problems we had by this point no longer mattered, but as long as they were both happy I this moment, it didn't matter.

I took myself away from the chaos and the hustle and bustle of our careful planning and went into my bedroom.

I took out a photo frame from my chest of drawers which, like most of the photos in my house, was covered in a thick blanket of dust. I wiped it away and underneath the thick layer of dust was a picture of a younger me along side my family, in the fore ground of the photo was me with a smile and in the back ground stood my older twin brother, Claus, with my mother, my father and our dog, Boney. We looked so happy… of course we were, we weren't burdened by the traumatic heartbreak of our past and for all we knew, we still had a future to look forward to… the pig masks took that future away from us.

Claus… he was one of the strongest people I ever knew. He would face any danger, no matter how severe, with a stern expression that was completely stoic and would never falter, regardless of how scared he was… if he was here now… he'd know what to do… he'd know how to take down the leader of the pig masks… but if it weren't for them… Claus and my mother would both still be alive… I wouldn't have mourned their deaths and I wouldn't need to seek revenge.

Claus only died because he wanted to seek vengeance against the mecha Drago that killed our mother… he was never seen again.

A tear drop filled my eye and ran from my face to the surface of the photo frame as I whispered, "I'm doing this… for you." I then kissed the photo frame as Ness entered the room unannounced.

"Hey! Lucas! You coming? —"

"What! Ness – Um…" I stuttered.

"What's that?" Asked Ness curiously. "Why are you crying?"

"Oh! Um – "

Ness then took the photo frame from my hand and looked at it closely.

"Is this you?" asked Ness.

"Um… Yeah…" I responded.

"So, is this your family?" he asked rather inconsiderately.

"…" I responded.

"Oh!... I'm… sorry… I didn't mean to –"

"No, it's fine…" I snapped.

I then took the photo from Ness's hand aggressively and put it away quickly. I then wiped the tears away from my eyes as I began to leave the room…

"we should… um… go join the others…"

"Yeah okay…" answered Ness

Ness and I then joined the rest of the group in the living room as we all got ready to leave.

Jeff loaded his gun and then put it around his waist, he then pushed his glasses up his face and closer to his eyes, they glowed as the sunlight hit the surface and reflected off them again.

Poo tightened his belt in his martial arts GI and then snapped his finger and released a small pulse of PSI energy.

Duster attached his wooden leg ready for combat usage and then cleared his throat.

Paula and Kumatora then repeated what Poo did and snapped their fingers and then took a curtsy at each other 'like girls do'. Paula then tightened the ribbon in her hair and pulled a brave face.

Ness then pulled out his yo-yo and stretched it out and then pulled it back. He then pulled out his baseball bat and tapped it on his shoulder like he was ready for battle.

I then picked up a wooden stick that was covered in bright green and tiny leaves, this was my weapon of choice, of course I was also armed with the new powers that I had learned from Ness, my 'PK LOVE'.

Ness conjured another wormhole and we all stepped through, but upon landing on the Highway, Ness collapsed.

"Ness! Are you okay?!" I asked concernedly.

"I… Huff… Feel… Huff… Drained… Huuuuff" said Ness as he struggled to breathe and try and regain his energy. "I don't… think… I… can… Huff… open… another… wormhole… Huff…".

"Well hopefully, you won't have to make another portal…" said Kumatora optimistically.

We then approached the dark tower and began the gargantuan accent to the top of the tower to meet the leader of the pig masks, but that was not what met us at the top… an onslaught of pig masks armed with weapons were charged with eliminating the intruders… us.

"Okay! Kumatora, Jeff and Poo take the 30 on the left and Lucas, Paula, Duster and I will take the 40 on the right!" commanded Ness.

"Ness! You sit this one out!" said Kumatora. "We got this!".

The pig mask army began to advance so we fought back… Paula kept on using her PK FIRE attack over and over again to every pig mask that progressed towards her. Kumatora used her PK THUNDER attack and electrocuted everything in sight, Poo alternated between PK FREEZE and PSI MAGNET for freezing the pig masks and absorbing their energy-based attacks, he then used the martial arts that he learned from his days as a prince to smash the pig mask's frozen bodies whose ice shards scattered in his wake. Jeff and Duster teamed up as they were the only people who weren't psychics, so Jeff used his gun to take down the pig masks and Duster simply whacked them with his wooden leg which was just as effective. Much to our dismay, Ness decided to pick up his baseball bat and start whacking the pig masks in his way and I did the same with my stick that was picked up from sunshine forest a while ago as well as using my new PK LOVE attack and the blinding white hexagonal light that originated from my hands pulsated into the advancing army and electrocuted the goons that wore the mask of the pig.

It took around thirty minutes to completely dispose of all of the pig masks, but we got it done. When we had finished, nearly all of the pig masks that posed a threat to us were incapacitated for the near future and wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. Now, the only thing that stood in between me and the leader of the was a tall and heavy door…

Me and my friends struggled to push the door open, but with all our strength, we finally succeeded.

Upon opening the door, we discovered a large, open, round room that one could hear the echo of their own thoughts in. In the centre of the room stood a very tall and wide mechanical figure with eight metal legs that all looked very sharp and could easily slice through a thick concrete slab. In the middle of the eight legs, there was a small, fat child with blonde hair and a face that looked like a literal pig. This child was enclosed in a glass capsule that seemed like it was designed to protect him from something… there was electricity surging around the top of this mechanical beast that almost resembled a crown

**"****And who are you?" **Asked the strange figure.

"Shouldn't we be asking you?" asked Kumatora.

**"****Fine then… I a Y…"**


	10. Chapter 10: The Trust I lost

Me and my friends were absolutely astonished. We couldn't believe that the mastermind behind an entire terrorist organisation that had killed hundreds of people was a child that was no older than 12. Yeah, I was speechless, but my lack of speech was nothing compared to my unyielding rage…

"You're the –"

**"****Wait a second! Aren't you from Onett?" **Asked Porky as he stared intensely at Paula, Poo, and Jeff. He then began to stare at Ness with a viscous scowl on his face which was quite hard to see given that his mouth is a giant, gaping hole. **"Y O U!"**

Ness looked terrified by this monster's acknowledgement of his existence. He gulped as Porky's staring intensified.

**"****How are ****_you _****here, N E S S? Have you come to remind me of your abandonment of me?" **Asked Porky in a dramatic tone.

"His what!?" I asked in a panic. "Ness, you _know _him!?"

"Of course, not…" Ness answered. "Why would I know someone like _that_?"

**"****HOW DARE YOU COME TO ****_MY _****WORLD AND PRETEND I DON'T EXIST" **shouted Porky in a tone that conveyed far more pain and suffering than he wanted. This tone was the tone of someone who is incredibly lonely, someone who has had their heart broken a thousand times over. I felt a great swell of pity for that poor soul, it was a shame that the soul I speak of was hidden under years of trauma and heartbreak. He was beyond reason now. **"YOU ABANDONED ME WHEN I NEEDED YOU THE MOST, AND NOW, YOU WILL BE THE ONE WHO IS TOSSED ASIDE AND FORGOTTEN!"**

"WHAT EXACTLY DID I DO?" Ness protested. "YOU WERE ON A PATH OF SELF DESRUCTION! JOINING THE HAPPY HAPPYISTS, BECOMING GIYGAS'S UNDERLING? DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ALL THE EVIL THINGS YOU DID!?"

I was mortified at the person I had just seen Ness become. Someone with so much anger, so much hate. No, I wasn't mortified at him. I was mortified at how much I saw myself in him just now. So consumed by rage and vengeance, desperate to play the victim… yes, that was exactly the person I had become…

However, I was never going to let it slide that Ness had just lied to me, straight to my face. Maybe he did it to protect me, and our friendship… Maybe he thought that I would hate him if I found out that they had a history. No, whatever noble reason Ness picked to hide the truth from me was irrelevant. I thought that the trust between us was all that mattered so why did he think that I couldn't be told about this. Absolute trust between two people is being able to share whatever secrets you have with no judgement and being given forgiveness without having to earn it. I thought the trust between us would count for tenfold considering we love!... Wait a second? Love? I can't be in love with Ness! I've known him barely over a week… and there is no way that he would love me back… someone like me… a shy and broken, little boy… trying to prove himself a man…

**"****MY MISTAKES OF THE PAST ARE EXACTLY WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE… MISTAKES!" **Told Porky. **"I NEVER WANTED TO HURT ANYONE!... I JUST WANTED TO BE ACCEPTED… LOVED… BY SOMEONE… THE LONELINESS I FEEL, WELL YOU COULDN'T EVEN BEGIN TO IMAGINE WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE—"**

"Actually! I can!" I said, moved by the heart-breaking story of this tyrant. "When my mother and my brother died… I was left with no-one… my dad left me… a tiny, little, eight-year-old boy… he left me all alone in the world… I would have done anything to be loved by someone again… and then I met these people, the people who changed my life forever…" I said as I looked deep into Ness's violet eyes.

"Lucas! What are you doing?!" cried Kumatora.

"I'm relating to him…" I said nervously. "I'm not trying to make you feel worse about everything… I mean… for all I know… I could have become you if I hadn't been saved by the people, I love…"

**"****Okay… seriously! Make your point before I stab you in the leg, just for wasting my time…"**

"My point is that… all anyone needs is love… if you stop all of this now… I don't know about these guys, but I will be your friend… I'll be there for you… to hold you through the dark days… to celebrate your achievements… to tell you that my life is a million times better… because… you're my friend."

**"****you… really mean that?" **asked Porky.

"I do" I said as I reached out my hand in a gesture of love and good will. "from the bottom of my heart… And I will never, ever, turn my back on you…"

**"****Well then…" **Said Porky menacingly. **"YOU ARE JUST AS FOOLISH AS YOUR ****_LITTLE PAL _****OVER THERE!"**

"W… What do you mean?" I said with a catch in my throat.

**"****YOUR LITTLE FRIEND, NESS, IS THE REASON I CAME TO THIS TIME… HE'S THE REASON I DID WHAT I DID…"**

"Wha!" I said as a look of horror soon emerged on my face. My heart started racing. There was no way Porky could have known about my mom, or at least, who she is to me, nor Claus and certainly not my dad… He wouldn't say what I thought he was going to say… there's no way Ness is responsible for—

**"****THAT'S RIGHT, ****_LUCAS_****,** **YOUR FRIEND IS THE REASON THAT YOUR MOTHER… IS DEAD, HE'S THE REASON YOUR BROTHER… IS DEAD, HE'S THE REASON YOUR DAD… ABANDONED YOU AND SWEET LITTLE BONEY RAN AWAY WITH YOUR DAD… HE'S THE REASON… YOU HAVE NO-ONE… HE'S THE REASON YOU HAVE… G…"**

"How is Ness the cause of all of that?!" I protested. "He didn't know that was going to happen… it's not his fault."

**"****Just give it a little thinking… Ness turns his back on me, so I create the spider mech, I steal a time machine and use it to come here… I start the pig mask army, and under my instruction, they created the mecha drago and it kills your mom, they set light to Sunshine Forest and your brother goes to avenge your mom… none of it would have happened if Ness hadn't turned me away…"**

"N… No… th… that's… n… not true!" I said as I started to accept this new and drastic premise.

**"****STOP LYING TO YOURSELF!"** said Porky, expecting a reaction. **"YOU KNOW I SPEAK ONLY OF THE TRUTH AND YOU ****_KNOW IT_****!"**

I didn't want to believe it! However, I couldn't deny the truth that Porky told… I couldn't deny that if Ness hadn't betrayed, Porky would never have come to my time and my mom, my brother, my dad and my dog would still be here with me… the pig masks wouldn't have ever existed and all of those poor people who lost their lives… the more I accepted the harsh reality of these events, the more the rage grew and the more I needed to release it…

I don't know what happened to me… It was almost like the real me was taken out of my body and was forced to watch in horror… The endless stream of tears began to run from my eyes and down my cheeks, my breathing became staggered and heavy… I could do nothing but collapse to my knees.

My fists clenched so tight that I pierced my own skin and the blood soon began to leave my body. Perhaps it took my ability to see the best in people too because I lost all of my capability for empathy… compassion… love… kindness… and what was left was a hollow… broken… shell of my former self with nothing but hate in his heart.

My eyes began to glow a blood red as I stood up with my head slightly tilted towards the ground with my eyes fixated on the one person I could see.

As my hate and my fury began to intensify, a dark aura of energy, almost like a black fire, began to surround my entire being. In this state, I was more connected to my powers than I had ever been, my PK LOVE was stronger than it had ever been, and yet, how could that be… a being using an attack with love in the very name and yet, I was a being… who was uncapable… of love.

Maybe intense emotion was the trigger I needed to deeply connect with my powers and make them stronger… but none of that mattered… I only had one goal… one purpose… kill the source of my hate…

I'm not even sure that in this state, my vocal chords worked. This shell of myself… charged my attack… PK LOVE… but fired it without even uttering the words… there was only distance that stood in the way of me and my friends.

I began to advance slowly towards the group of people that I had come to love while charging my attack… I could see the terror in their eyes… the fear… the heart-break. I didn't want to watch… but I had no choice.

"Lucas?... Come on man… stop kidding around… This isn't funny!" cried Kumatora. I had never seen her so scared before, for a long time, I had relied on her for her stoic emotions and brave face that she would put on for my sake… I needed that more than ever… but I destroyed it myself.

I remained silent as I slowly drew closer to Kumatora… the fear in her eyes getting stronger with each step I took.

I was suddenly hit with something… it felt scaly and made a whipping sound as it struck me… I was familiar with the weapon of choice as well as the user.

"Get away from her!" yelled Duster. "Seriously! What is with you… throughout all of our adventures, you've never even thought about swatting a fly! And now, suddenly, you want to murder your friends?!"

I then left Kumatora's side and began to approach Duster in a much faster fashion, the fear from Kumatora's eyes had seemed to transfer to Duster's as I got closer. A ball of white energy began to charge in my hand as before. I then put my hand out to send it flying in Duster's direction.

It was a direct hit!

Duster then collapsed to the ground and remained unconscious for a brief period.

"**NOOOOOOOO**!" shouted Kumatora as she ran towards Duster and scooped up his unconscious body in her arms. Tears were running down her face and onto Duster's as she held his hand in hers. "please… you can't leave me here… alone… I… I… I love you…" she sobbed.

I then looked at this beautiful union that stood before me… two people… in love with one another… bought together out of fear of losing each other, forever… The glow in my eyes began to flicker, Ness saw and believed he knew how to get through to me.

Duster began to cough and then he came to. "Kumatora?" he said in a soft and quiet voice.

"I thought I lost you…" Said Kumatora as she continued to sob.

They looked deeply into each other's eyes with as much love as they could muster… I don't know if Duster could hear what she said, but he grabbed her and hugged her as tightly as he possibly could, and she hugged him back, all the while I stood there, observing a perfect union between two people that loved each other and yet, I still couldn't see it.

"LUCAS! OVER HERE!" shouted Ness from a distance. My eyes then began to glow red again as I turned around and began to walk towards Ness with the intent to kill once more.

Ness accidently backed himself against a wall and couldn't escape my grasp… I grabbed him using my right arm by the neck and lifted up and against the wall… I then began to apply pressure to his neck…

"L… Lucas… Focus on… us" said Ness as he struggled to breathe. "Lucas… f… focus on me…"

Tears filled Ness's eyes as the life in them slowly began to drain. With his last breath, he whispered "Lucas… I… I love you…"

The grip on Ness's neck began to loosen and Ness began to breathe more and more. My red eyes began to flicker once again and suddenly… In my mind… I could see…

I saw… an instantaneous flash of all the memories that I cherish… the ones when I realized… I am in love with Ness.

My right hand suddenly let go of Ness's neck and he dropped to my side. He stood up weakly as he watched the red glow drain from my eyes… he then stood in awe as he watched my very soul return to the shell, I call a body.

I fell into Ness's arms as the tears flooded my eyes and the soft whimpering sound of my crying emerged from my throat. My hand gripped the fabric of Ness's T-shirt and my head was buried deep in between Ness's head and his shoulder.

"Did… Did… I… Kill… anyone?" I whimpered.

"No… No… you didn't… you're too kind for that…" Ness said as he put his hand on my head and ran his fingers through my hair.

In relief, I sighed heavily and started bawling my eyes out into Ness's shirt, but after what Ness had just witnessed, how could he even say that. I considered leaving as soon as I could, how could I face my friends of old and my friends of new after I had nearly killed one of them and mortally wounded another?

Looking around through my eyes that were clouded by my tears, I could see the disappointed and terrified faces of the people I had come to call my friends. The guilt I felt was incomprehensible, I was so disgusted with myself, but… I wasn't in control… how is that possible? I was watching it all unfold before me, yet I was unable to stop myself…

**"****Wow! YOU WERE ****_REALLY _****WERE EASY TO MANIPULATE!" **Said Porky whilst trying not to laugh.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO HIM!" shouted Kumatora in an over-protective tone.

**"****well excuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!" **said Porky with the implication that he had done nothing wrong.

**"****FOR THE LOVE OF ME, PORKY, DON'T APPOLOGISE!" **said an unknown, yet familiar voice in a tone that sent shivers down everyone's spine.

A large flash of blue light appeared from nowhere and from it, emerged a grey cat-like creature that we knew all too well. He looked angrier than the last time we saw him. Yes… we knew exactly who it was.


	11. Chapter 11: The Lost Soul

I clung to Ness's shirt for as long as I possibly could before I had to let go of it, the very action of releasing the fabric of Ness's shirt from my hands filled me with sorrow and fear. Deep down, I knew that this may be the last time I get to touch him…

**"****A positively splendid job you did of breaking this poor little boy, Porky." **Said Giegue menacingly.

**"****Thank you, but who are you and how do you know me?" **asked Porky.

**"****You do not recognise me? You don't know who I am?"**

**"****No… should I?"**

**"****Such insubordination from the weak willed 'pig man' that I had the audacity to call an underling… although, as Giygas, my mind was not so rational as it is now…"**

**"****Wait! You're Giygas?"**

**"****Yes, Porky… I am and forever have been your master."**

**"****LORD GIEGUE! I LIVE TO SERVE." **Said Porky subserviently. **"I also think I have something that could be of use to us, my lordship…"**

Porky then pressed a few buttons and lurking in the shadows was a red, blinking light…

This red light began to move closer and closer until it finally emerged from the shadows.

It was a man, no taller than me, he was dressed in a black jacket with a fluffy collar and loud, brown shorts that were tucked into his tall black boots. The man also had a large, metal gun that was either attached to his hand or was there in its place, from the gun, there was a long metallic cord that stretched from the tip of the gun to the back of this man's mask. The mask was a large metal 'bowl' that had one orange visor that covered only one eye, from this, one could see that one of his eyes was where the blinking red light had originated from.

**"****I give to you… 'THE MASKED MAN'!" **Said Porky in a tone that suggested he was proud of his creation.

The so-called masked man slowly approached Porky and then stood by his side with his gun armed and ready. See what I did there? Get it? D! ahahaha I'm so funny! Giegue looked dumbfounded by the events that had just transpired. I sensed that Giegue had no need for the masked man, nor Porky, but was still willing to keep up the charade.

**"****Very impressive Porky… is it an android or a cyborg?" **Asked Giegue in a slightly sarcastic tone. Despite Giegue being our enemy as well as Porky, this sarcastic interaction between the two of them was very entertaining to say the least.

**"****HE is a cyborg, he will do anything I ask…"**

**"****Fantastic! Make HIM kill that one over there!" **said Giegue maliciously as he pointed towards Poo.

Poo stood there, speechless, in this large echoey room, I wouldn't be surprised if you could hear him gulp from many meters away.

**"****Masked man! Kill Prince Poo!" **Said Porky with a slight cackle in his voice.

"Target acquired!" said the masked man in a robotic voice as if he was talking into a fan. His voice… although it was robotic, it was still very familiar to me… I knew that voice and I knew it well, but it couldn't be… could it?

The blinking red light in his eye changed from blinking to a solid, bright red with a little bit of murderous intent…

"Activating programme."

_"__What is it doing?" thought Porky. "it is just meant to start killing!"_

" …

"10%..."

"20%..."

"40%..."

"70%..."

"65%..."

"Wait what?" asked Porky in a less menacing tone.

"A fatal error has occurred… would you like to send a report?" asked the masked man in a somewhat innocent tone despite it having tried to upload a programme that would get it to kill people.

**"****NO! DON'T SEND A REPORT!" **Yelled Porky.

"Sending report…"

**"****SON OF A BITCH! NOW TO WAIT FIVE MINUTES TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" **Cried Porky in a very frustrated tone.

"Five minutes?" asked Jeff.

**"****The WIFI signal in here is a pile of crap." **Told Porky. It's quite hard to believe that the conversation actually went like this but there you go. I guess for people like Jeff and Porky, WIFI is a worthy conversation topic.

**"****PORKY… WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS INCOMPETANCE?" **asked Giegue in a very frightening tone.

**"****I'M SORRY MY MASTER… I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN…"**

**"****THAT'S RIGHT… YOU WON'T…"**

Giegue then raised one of his arms and shot a large pulse of PSI energy. This blast then breached Porky's spider mech and then lifted Porky out of it. Porky was then dragged up to Giegue's face like clothes on a line or a spider on it's web.

**"****THE FACT THAT YOU WOULD DARE DISAPPOINT YOUR MASTER IS DISGUSTING… THIS ISUBORDINATION SHALL NOT GO UNPUNISHED… GIVE MY REGARDS TO LUCAS'S MOTHER IF YOU SEE HER…"**

Giegue then used his telekinetic abilities to snap Porky's neck and then his life-less body was thrown back into the damaged spider mech in which it was then impaled by a large piece of shattered glass.

We all stood, shocked… we knew Giegue was cruel, but we didn't know he had a blood lust. I had thought that upon his entry, Giegue had some sort of grand plan for porky and his masked man but apparently not.

**"****Utter filth…" **Said Giegue in a quiet, but still blood curdling voice.

He then looked down at the masked man who then looked back at him, Giegue looked as if he wanted to end the cyborg too but couldn't be assed.

"Why are you here… Now?" asked Kumatora fearlessly.

**"****Well… considering that it has been a fair number of days since our last encounter and you still haven't been able to locate me… I thought it only fair that I reveal my face once more to give you that little spark of hope in defeating me… of course… you can't"**

"Then why even bother? It takes a lot of energy to open a portal like that so why would you bother risking it?" asked Ness while unable to make heads or tails of Giegue's true intentions.

**"****Oh please… you think that creating a portal to transport myself takes a vast amount of energy… my boy, you are so wrong… creating a portal is easier than destroying the fourth wall"**

_"__oh, not this again!" Paula thought to herself._

"OKAY… WHO BROKE THE FUCKING WALL THIS TIME?!" asked a very familiar but still unknown voice.

The masked man then pointed towards Giegue and uttered the words…

"The unknown creature is responsible… report sent… please check your emails periodically for a response"

"OH, MY FREAKING GERD… IT TOOK ME THREE WEEKS OF WRITING TO RE-BUILD THE WALL AFTER YOU BROKE IT THE FIRST TIME AND THEN YOU GO AND BREAK IT AGAIN! SERIOUSLY… WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!?" asked the strange voice

**"****WELL I WOULD SAY THAT THIS INTRUSION RESTS ENTIRELY ON YOUR SHOULDERS FOR MAKING ME AS POWERFUL AS I AM… DID YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT ****_A FOURTH WALL _****WOULD BE BEYOND MY POWER?!"**

"YOU BETTER WATCH IT… DON'T FORGET I CAN EDIT YOU OUT FASTER THAN YOU COULD SAY _OKEY_"

**"****YOU DON'T SCARE ME!"**

"OH YEAH? LET'S SEE ABOUT THAT" said the very peculiar voice.

The sounds of keys typing on a keyboard could be heard in the distance as Giegue slowly started to disappear…

**"****OKAY, I APPOLOGISE, PLEASE DON'T ERASE ME!"**

"OKAY, FINE!"

Giegue then stopped disappearing and then regained a complete body.

"ALL OF YOU… BEHAVE!" said the mysterious voice before it disappeared.

We all looked on in horror, just trying to comprehend what had just witnessed, did this being from beyond the fourth wall really have the power to erase Giegue completely?

Regardless, we all pressed on with our battle plan. I locked eyes with Ness and couldn't say a word from the utter fear and dread in my heart. To say I was scared of Giegue would be like saying I'm scared of Bees, the very sound of his name would send shivers down my spine, it would make the adrenaline course around my body as my heart began to race, yes… scared was definitely an understatement.

Giegue started laughing in a horribly evil tone, hysterically. He then silenced his lips and proceeded to turn his attention to the group.

**"****Tell me…" **Giegue began. **"How is it that you all managed to have reversed the effects of passing through the time space wormhole? As I recall, that little brat over there, lost access to her PSI, the prince lost his sight and Jeff lost his intelligence and was rendered mute as a result…"**

"Wait a sec!" cried Paula. "YOU! YOU MANIPULATED THE WORMHOLE INTO TAKING AWAY AN ESSENTIAL PART OF EACH OF US! YOU DID IT TO STOP US FROM STOPPING YOU!"

**"****Oh my, step aside Jeff, it appears your group has a new ****_genius._****" **Said Giegue sarcastically. **"Now how did you figure that out?"**

"Well… We almost defeated you by praying… you were on the brink of death before Ness disappeared… you then regained the upper hand until we were sucked into the wormhole…"

**"****Indeed… I was convinced that not one of you simpletons would be able to deduce my true intentions and yet, here I stand being told the beginning of my entire plan." **Giegue told. **"It's true, I used what I stole from each of you to regain this form… of course I was still beaten and weary from our battle so I needed the time to recover, that's why I took something from Jeff and Poo that would render them unconscious so that would be two potential attackers that I wouldn't have to worry about, that is also why I took away your PSI because the only attacks that Ness has are attacks that would have either temporarily blinded me or would have hurt you all in the process and would have destroyed Lucas's house. Although there was one thing that I didn't account for…"**

"And that is?" Asked Kumatora in a way that suggested she had Paula's back.

**"****I never imagined that Ness would form more alliances so quickly… Ness losing his memories was never an intention of mine but upon seeing him vanish, he planted the seed for my plan. I assumed his memories would remain intact upon arriving wherever he arrived, ergo, he opens another wormhole to get back to our fight and then I make my cunning escape… however, when the wormhole opened and swallowed you all, I saw that as a grander opportunity, why bother escaping when I can use you three to regain what I had lost as my powers grew?"**

"And that's this form that you call Giegue?" asked Jeff.

**"****You mean the form in which I was born as… yes."**

"And what now then?" asked Ness nervously. "well? You must be fully recovered, or you never would have risked coming back here for more…"

**"****How right you are…" **responded Giegue menacingly. **"while I was recovering, I simply observed the order in which the events of the original timeline were meant to take place… Lucas, Kumatora and Duster discover the leader of the pig mask army and vengeance for everyone lost in the pig mask's wake is won, then upon Porky's instruction, they then face off against the 'masked man', they earn the victory and restore peace to this world, that is when I discovered a power that I can use."**

"W… what do… you mean?" I stuttered in a desperate attempt to seem stronger than I was at this time.

**"****Well… long ago, the Magypsies worshiped the power of the mighty dragons which bought them the use of their PSI, one of those dragons now rests underneath the Nowhere islands, in the original timeline, that dragon restores all of the damage caused by Porky and his pathetic goons. The only way to get this dragon to appear is to collect the seven needles and bring them together, the dragon appears and only someone with a pure heart can get it to grant you a wish… that person being Lucas… thanks to my unending power, I was able to erase the need for your group to collect the needles and so I did it myself, from this, you would never have gained use of your attacks like PK LOVE and PK FLASH as they were never taught to you, but of course, that part of the new timeline corrected itself when Ness was added to the equation…"**

"Yeah! Because Ness taught Lucas how to use his attacks!" yelled Duster.

This retort by Duster was an attempt to prove to Giegue that he was not as powerful as he thought he was, and yet, this acknowledgement of Giegue's mistake didn't even seem to make Giegue twitch… clearly, me learning my attacks isn't that much of a mistake.

**"****What? You think that my one mistake somehow throws a spanner into the works of my entire plan?"**

"Well… until you said that… kinda." Muttered Duster quietly.

**"****No, you uneducated moron…" **Said Giegue rudely. **"All that did was increase the number of possible outcomes of this new timeline, all of which end with my victory…"**

"If you win in every scenario, then why bother telling us all of this?" asked Kumatora.

**"****Well… wouldn't it be unfair if you all died without knowing what I really had planned." **Said Giegue maliciously as he turned his head to stare deeply into my eyes, this action filled me with uneasiness, but I stared back just to prove that I wasn't afraid.

"you plan to kill us?!" Asked Poo in a panic.

**"****No, not individually and it isn't vital to my plan that you all die, however, once I have earned my victory, you will likely perish along with this pathetic world." **

No-one could do so much as make any kind of vocal noise, let alone speak… the one thing that we all couldn't wrap our brains around was whether Giegue planned to destroy the world, or simply rule it which would put an end to our very way of life… one thing was certain, however, Giegue needed to be stopped.

Giegue could put an end to all of us just as quick as he could click his fingers, the overwhelming power I could feel from him would give Porky nightmares and yet, it was clear that the power he displayed was only a fraction of what he was capable of, so why hide it? Why toy with us the way he has been?

**"****Lucas…"**

"Huh?!" I sounded without any regard for who I was speaking to.

**"****I must say, it was brave what you did… showing kindness to the man-child who killed your mother…"**

"I could tell that he was only heart-broken, and some people only need to be shown compassion to be saved, I thought that would be enough for him, but clearly not…"

**"****Of course… Porky wasn't the reason you lost control of yourself…" **said Giegue with an especially evil smile on his face.

"What?"

**"****That's right… I seized control over your mind and I must say… it was easy after he broke you…"**

"I ALMOST KILLED ONE OF MY FRIENDS AND YOU WANT TO STAND THERE AND TELL ME THAT IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!?"

Giegue did not say a word and instead, he simply kept hovering where he was and just kept on smiling maliciously.

I then looked over to Duster who remained in poor shape, but he didn't seem mad at me, rather, he seemed to understand what I went through… becoming a different person and losing yourself. Yes, he understood it.

Giegue then looked down at the Masked Man and went to attack it… he then stopped as if he suddenly had a new idea.

**"****Interesting…" **told Giegue. **"I just thought of a way to make this moment so much more delectable…"**

Giegue waved his hand above the masked man's head and then both of its eyes began to glow red just as mine had done.

It then looked up at our group like it was ready to pounce…


	12. Chapter 12: A hero among Villains

The masked man began to approach us with his gun pointed at Jeff. Jeff's eyes widened.

The masked man's gun began to draw power from what I could only guess was his battery in his head but who knows, the gun began to light up and the barrel began to glow, this energy-based weapon was ready to fire.

Jeff pulled out his gun and fired it repetitively and quickly, the electrified bullets then ricocheted off the masked man's helmet and into the distance creating a small flash of light as they did so.

The masked man then fired his energy weapon and just before the ball of light hit Jeff, the energy bullet bounced off something shiny and disappeared into the darkness. That shiny object that the bullet collided with was a skillet that Paula owned. She threw it to protect Jeff from the masked man's weapon which fired so quickly that she had almost no time to charge a PSI attack to counter it.

"New target acquired!" said the masked man in his robotic voice. He then pointed his gun at Paula as she began to charge her 'PK Fire' attack and then shot it towards him, knocking him back as it hit. This knockback of Paula's attack didn't seem to interrupt the charging of his energy-based weapon, it hummed as it finished charging and caused the barrel of the gun to glow a strong, white light.

The masked man then fired his weapon, but he then lost his balance due to the damage he had suffered from Paula's attack, the ball of white light then shot off into the darkness once again.

Ness dragged me back to the shadows of the room with the intent to protect me as much as I protested.

"Ness! You'll need me to fight!" I argued.

"You're the only person that Giegue needs for his plan!" told Ness. "there's no way you're going out there, if he gets you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself!"

"But—"

"No buts! You're not going out there! I won't be able to focus on fighting if I'm worrying about you…"

"Please Ness! I can handle it!"

"Okay… how about this… if Giegue and the masked man start kicking our asses, then you can help…"

Ness started to walk away as I grabbed hold of his arm tightly.

"NO! I'm not going to wait and see you get hurt, I don't think I could take it!"

Ness put his hand on my face and whispered into my ear "don't worry… I always make it back to the people I love…"

Tears started to fill my eyes as Ness walked away… it was like watching someone take their last steps into battle, all the while knowing that he wouldn't make it back… maybe Ness was right, perhaps I was worrying too much… I couldn't bare the thought of losing him, especially after we finally admitted our feelings for each other, but if he was ripped away from me before I could tell him how I really feel, then I don't even know what I'd do. How does someone recover from something like that? How do they recover from losing someone they loved deeply?

I wiped the tears from my face and psyched myself up, I was done hiding in the shadows, acting like a scared little boy. I needed to be strong now… My friends needed my help and I wasn't going to let them down.

I crept around the large open room, being sure to stay close to the wall and remain hidden in the shadows, I wanted to get a good vantage point, so I could join the fight at a point when Ness and the others couldn't exactly say no. yeah! That's my plan, but I didn't know who I'd stand a better chance of defeating, Giegue or the Masked Man?

Ness, Paula and Jeff kept attacking the masked man using their signature attacks, Ness's PSI Rockin' and his PK Flash, Paula's PK Fire and Jeff's 'stun gun'. At the same time, Poo and Kumatora were using their strongest attack, their PK Star storm, it was an attack that required a very large amount of energy to use and lasted for a while so Poo and Kumatora had to pace themselves to avoid passing out mid-battle. This mighty attack that these two wielded was directed at Giegue in an attempt to break his powerful shield he used to protect himself from the falling stars, they may not have harmed him very much if they had hit, however.

**"****Are you aware that your pitiful attacks will not penetrate my shield?" **asked Giegue in a mockingly sophisticated voice.

"PK STARSTORM!" yelled Poo and Kumatora simultaneously as if they were ignoring the alien's last remark.

**"****Well I tried to tell you…" **said Giegue as he raised his hands with his elbows on his hips as if to say 'I don't care, do what you want…' as he let the raining stars bounce off his lime green shield of energy.

Kumatora fell to the ground after using her last attack, she must have passed out from using too much energy and it caused too much strain on her body.

Giegue smirked as he lowered his shield and raised his left hand and charged his PSI attack once more. He took aim at Kumatora with the sinister sphere of 'dark' light charging in his hands, he then fired it in an attempt to kill Kumatora.

Poo grabbed hold of Kumatora and pushed her out of the way. He then attempted to generate his PSI magnet, but, unfortunately, there was not enough time and Poo took a direct hit…

Paula looked over to the ensuing chaos and watched Poo take a hit. The masked man watched Paula let her guard down for the moment and took the time to take out his energy sword and stab Paula in her right leg. She screamed in pain as she collapsed to the floor. The Masked Man then stepped forward with his sword raised in the air, Paula's trembling body stood in level with the Masked Man's waist. His red eyes glowed a little bit brighter with the thought of decapitating Paula…

"Just make it quick!" Paula cried as she trembled in fear.

"If I kill you quickly, one may liken it to mercy, a pleasure you'll be denied today…" said the Masked man as he moved his sword to position it upon Paula's shoulder like he was soon to stab Paula through her left lung. "I hope your God was listening when you begged for an afterlife… we'll see what happens…"

The Masked Man then went to drive his sword through Paula's chest as it was quickly knocked out of his hands by a yellow lightning bolt that soon erupted into a towering wall of flames…

"YOU GET AWAY FROM HER! YOU OVER-TOUTED WASHING MACHINE!" Shouted Kumatora over protectively with a thin trail of smoke forming from her fingers.

"Hmm… A new target…" said the Masked Man ominously.

"I don't think so!" said Ness as he helped up Paula and took her to Duster and Poo, the latter of whom, Jeff was tending to, to sit out on the rest of the fight.

"Ness… I'm sorry, I don't think I could handle using my powers again…" said Kumatora as she gasped for air, trying to regain her strength.

"Don't sweat it!" said Ness as he tossed her his baseball bat. "You can use this, I have my yo-yo and my powers, so I'll be fine."

"Thanks dude!" said Kumatora as she held up the baseball bat on her shoulder and then aggressively pointed it at the masked man. "Hey Ness?"

"Yeah?"

"say the words!"

"The masked man is **evil**!" said Ness maliciously.

"Ah! You know me so well!" said Kumatora as she raised the baseball bat and proceeded to whack the Masked Man violently and repeatedly, putting many dents in his helmet as she did so.

"This… Is… was… kerdaverific… bomb… fan… have you found my money?... don't cross those wires…" uttered the Masked Man as he was beaten black and blue to the point where he couldn't even form a coherent sentence.

"Um… I think you might have knocked a screw loose…" said Ness as he scratched the back of his head.

"Perhaps…" replied Kumatora as she delivered one more blow to the side of the Masked Man's head and knocked off his helmet in the process…

The round, shiny helmet hit the floor, making a clanging sound as it did so. The Masked Man's head was finally revealed showing a bright orange mop of hair that had a large quiff and a few longer bits that draped across his face. Blood was slowly dripping from the side of his head from his many impacts with Ness's baseball bat that was wielded by Kumatora. There were a few bruises on his face and body and a few burns on his hand from Kumatora's 'PK Fire'.

My eyes widened as I watched this traumatic scene unfold… How could this really be happening?! I thought Claus was dead… but, he's standing right there? He still had the same bright orange hair… the same blank and tough expression on his face… he looked just as like him as the day we lost him. Tears began to run down my face as I burst out of the shadows and sprinted towards Claus to give him the biggest hug of my life.

"YOU'RE ALIVE, MY BROTHER, YOU'RE ALIVE!" I said as I grabbed him and wrapped my arms around him.

"Lucas! NO!" yelled Ness.

The Masked Man struggled so I would loosen him from my grasp, he then smacked me round the face, I fell to the floor with a hand print, red mark on my cheek.

I couldn't believe it! That's twice now that I have gotten my big brother back, and the only time when it's real is when it isn't my brother any more. Claus! The masked man was Claus the entire time… and what? I sought to destroy him? I wanted to kill my only brother?

Ness helped me up off the floor and brushed the dust off of me.

"Lucas? He's Claus!?" remarked Kumatora in disbelief.

"Wait! That's your brother?!" Asked Ness panickily.

"Well it looks just like him… it sounds like him too… but, he isn't him anymore…" I answered.

**"****You're right Lucas… He's not your brother anymore!" **told Giegue. **"Porky turned him into a robot… he took away everything that made Claus who he is… of course, there ****_is _****a little bit of him that can be saved… if you ****_love him_****."**

"How!?" I asked frantically. "HOW DO I SAVE MY BROTHER"

Giegue tapped his nose twice as if to say that it was his secret and only his to keep. This angered me a lot, but I figured, the only right way to save Claus would be with love, just like I tried with Porky, this would be a harder challenge yet, I wasn't even sure that there was any of my brother left to save… but I had to try, didn't I?

"C… Claus?" I whimpered.

"…"

"Please Claus… I know you're in there… somewhere…"

"…"

"Claus! Look at what you're doing!"

"…"

"You're hurting people, Claus, my brother would never hurt anyone on purpose… so why are you any different?"

"…"

"ANSWER ME!" I snapped.

"…"

"Just like I thought…"

"… C… Cl… Claus?..."

"… huh…?"

"M… My name… Is… Cl… Claus?"

"Yes! Yes, it is!" I said excitedly as the hope I once had to see my brother again returned.

**"… ****Impossible!" **remarked Giegue.

The Masked Man… No… Claus reached out his hand and put it on the same cheek that he had previously struck.

"L… Lucas?" said Claus uncertainly as tears began to fill his eyes and the red light within them diminished.

I couldn't even speak, I was so over-joyed, I just nodded as to agree with him. My eyes began to well up and the endless streams of tears soon followed. How incredible! My brother made it home to me! I didn't even know what I could say. How do you put into words, the feeling of having a loved one that you thought was dead return to you, you can't!

"Claus!... it's really you!" I pulled Claus closer and gave him the tightest hug I could muster, and within seconds, I felt his hand grip my shirt. We were both crying hysterically but we both didn't care, we had been reunited. The literal impossible had happened, just like before… of course, that other time I thought I had him back, I was just really high on those weird purple mushrooms on Tanetane island and started hallucinating, but it felt no where near as real as it did now.

I held his head in my hand as I was running my fingers through his hair, I couldn't stop the waterfalls from my eyes, but it was okay… better than okay, in fact!

"Claus! You did it!" I said as I held him in my arms and never wanted to let go.

"I did what?" asked Claus uncertainly.

"You came back to me!"

As I finished that sentence, his grip around me grew tighter as he started to bawl his eyes out.

"I'm so sorry, Lucas!" cried Claus. "I let you down! I let you believe I was dead, I can only imagine what that did to you and Dad…"

"Don't be silly…" I answered. "You could never let me down… I'm so happy that you made it back to me…"

Claus's big green eyes looked back up at me in astonishment and then he pulled me closer. He then gave me a noogie just like he used to do when we were little. Kumatora then stepped up to say something.

"Hey Claus! I'm… sorry for beating you up like that…" said Kumatora as she blushed, she usually didn't apologise very much, even if she had done something wrong. This was big of her.

Claus showed a beaming smile towards Kumatora as he said, "that's quite alright!"

Kumatora breathed a sigh of relief and then turned her attention to the long-tailed monster that was so elegantly floating in the air.

"You see Giegue! It's over! Either leave now with your life… or die here!" demanded Kumatora.

**"****Oh my! How feisty you are, Kumatora…" **Giegue said smugly. **"But… do you really think that you can end my life with over half of your pathetic team incapacitated beyond movement?"**

"erm…" responded Kumatora nervously.

**"****just take a second to really think it over once more… the entire time that I was here, you were not able to land a single hit on me and yet you persist in goading me? That's just a little bit foolish, is it not?"**

"…"

**"****See? Now you vile little pests… it is time to face the music!"**

"NO!" I shouted aggressively. "YOU DO NOT GET TO HAVE THE LAST WORD! It may pain me to admit it, but… you gave me the most amazing gift today… and for that… I'm nothing but grateful…"

**"****Hmm?"**

"If it wasn't for your mind control, I may never have been able to get through to my brother… I may have lost him forever… you know… if we killed the masked man."

**"****Yes, I got the reference you made… you are truly grateful?"**

"Of course I am!" I said as I put my arm around Claus's neck playfully. "why do you only seek to destroy life when you can do so many wonderful things to help people… if you wanted to…?"

**"****Hmmm?" **sounded Giegue as he put a finger to his chin as if in thought.

He then suddenly disappeared in a blinding flash of light, completely unannounced. We all stood (or slouched in the case of my injured friends) dumbfounded, blinking in awe… or stun? We took the opportunity to retreat to give aid to the injured members of our team, which now included my brother, although Ness couldn't open a wormhole to easily travel to my house as there were members of our team who were so weakened by the events of the day that it would be dangerous for them to travel in such a manner… it could have killed them!

Ness, Kumatora and Jeff all offered to carry one of our hurt teammates on their backs as we would have to climb down a very long ladder to reach the highway once more. Given that Claus was battered and weary, much alike the rest of the others, I offered to carry him on my back as my friends were doing, but he refused my offer in the spirit of our childhood… I was always the weaker of us two twins, but that wasn't about to stop me.

Much to the dismay of my brother, I hoisted him onto my back and strapped him to me, so he wouldn't fall and die a very violent and gruesome death… I had only just got him back, I wasn't going to let that happen… again.

Kumatora, Ness and Jeff followed my lead to avoid a very nasty accident, so they strapped the fallen comrade they were carrying to their bodies, so they didn't fall down the colossal tower and die.

We began the seemingly endless decent to the ground floor of the tower with our hurt friends tied to our backs, we took each step as carefully as the last, making sure not to slip, as Ness climbed down, he had his backpack containing his yo-yo and his baseball bat, turned around so it was essentially a 'front-pack'. Kumatora had her kinda sorta boyfriend tied to her back who snored as he remained unconscious for the entire journey down. Poo appeared to be sleeping with a tense face, probably because he was in constant pain from Giegue's PSI attack. Paula seemed to be awake, but nonetheless in agony from the gash in her leg, she seemed to be comforted by the fact that Jeff was carrying her and not someone else.

After that seemingly endless decent to the bottom off the tower, we began to make our way slowly back to Tazmily village, so we could get medical attention for our injured friends at the medic's office in the village. Hopefully, we'd be able to treat Claus back at the house, after all, I wanted to let him have the time to re-adjust to our home and definitely change his clothes, that black jacket and brown shorts didn't really look good on him, the sooner he was back in his green and blue shirt, the better.

It was a very long journey, our legs and our backs ached like crazy and my feet wouldn't stop throbbing, sadly teleportation was not an option as easier it would have been. Ness had the idea to hitch hike back to Tazmily, however, we had already passed the highway by this point, so it too was not an option.

After walking slowly for 3 hours, we had finally reached the entrance to Tazmily and scurried to the Medic's and knocked on the door.

"Yeeeeeeeees?" asked a female's voice in a friendly tone.

"We need medical attention urgently!" yelled Kumatora.

"Come in!" replied the voice.

We then opened the front door and entered the building, inside the building, there was a patient's ward that had six beds, one of which was occupied by an old man with a cast on his leg that was suspended by a linen pully system that hung from the ceiling. The Nurse looked me and my friends up and down as she questioned how we had gotten into such a state, we told her that there was a fight between some people from a different town and things got out of hand, she may have been sceptical, but she seemed to buy it, she did not ask any more questions after that and instead, she tended to our fallen comrades. Duster and Poo had the most serious of the injuries, so they were the first to be treated. The Nurse wrapped a pristine, white bandage around Duster's wounds and then put an ice pack on his head to keep him from developing a fever from his burns that I had caused. The Nurse then repeated this process on Poo who was a little bit worse off and had suffered burns from the energy that ha seared his skin. Paula then sat on one of the beds as the Nurse wrapped a bandage around her wounded leg and then it was suspended in the air using the same method as the old man lying in the bed closest to the wall. Claus was next, and the Nurse then put his arm in a linen sling to keep him from bending it and then the bruises on his face and body had plasters gently placed on them to protect them from getting damaged further. Kumatora, Ness, Jeff and I weren't in desperate need of medical help, but the Nurse insisted on treating our minor wounds and bruises.

"Your friends will need to rest for the next couple of days, but they'll be okay." Said the Nurse politely as she showed us to the counter to sign a sheet of paper, giving our permission for our friends to return to my home in a couple of days. "you can come and pick them up in about two days, but Duster and Poo may need longer than that if they don't recover quickly, hopefully, that won't be the case."

"Okay then, thank you so much for your help." I returned politely.

We then stepped out of the medic's and made our way back to my house, sadly, the only members of my group accompanying me were Kumatora, Ness and Jeff. This made me so sad. The thought that I would be spending the night in my warm house and they were all stuck in that hospital for the night and perhaps, the next, it wasn't right, but what could we do about it? It wasn't like we knew anyone who could magically heal wounds… oh wait!

"Hey Kumatora?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could heal everyone tomorrow?"

"I should be all rested up after a good night's sleep so why not!"

"Oh good! The thought of them being stuck in that hospital room makes me sad, I don't want them to be there for too long."

"Yeah me too!" responded Kumatora.


	13. Chapter 13: Life, Love and Happiness

I had been trying to sleep for about an hour, but one thought was on my mind the entire time, the thought of my poor friends being stuck in that hospital for the entire night, it was so wrong, my friends were the ones that were suffering because I led them into battle, of course, what happened to my brother was beyond my control so at least that wasn't on my guilty conscious. Ness was asleep on the sofa just like the night I found him, Kumatora slept in my guest room… well it used to be my parent's room, but now it's a guest room, Jeff slept on the floor in the afore mentioned guest room with just a small duvet and a pillow, I thought everyone would just 'zonk out' the moment their heads hit the pillow, but I was wrong, it was a mostly sleepless night for everyone.

_"__Hey Lucas?"_

_"__Ness?" _

_"__Yeah, it's me Ness."_

_"__What're you still doing up?"_

_"__I couldn't sleep, I was worried about the others… I was just wondering… how're you doing?"_

_"__With what?"_

_"__with finding your brother… and losing your opportunity for vengeance against Porky…?"_

_"__Well now, getting vengeance against Porky doesn't really matter anymore. I have my brother back now and I'm sure that is all my mom would have wanted… I'm sure she's finally at peace knowing we're reunited."_

_"__That's sweet. You're sweet."_

_"__Ness? You really think so?"_

_"__Yeah… um… was that too much?"_

_"__No, no"_

_"__okay then!"_

_"__Ness?"_

_"__Yeah?"_

_"__Are we… like… going out?"_

_"__What… to a party?"_

_"__No… like… you know… going out"_

_"__I don't know what you mean…"_

_"__Are we… dating?"_

_"__What… like… boyfriend and boyfriend?"_

_"__Yeah…"_

_"__Do you want to be?"_

_"__I'm not really sure… that's why I asked…"_

_"__not sure about what?"_

_"__if… if I like… boys and not girls…"_

_"__ooooh!"_

_"__what?"_

_"__you don't know if you're gay…"_

_"__Gay? What's gay?" _I asked nervously.

_"__Gay is when you want to date people who are the same gender as you…" _Ness answered confidently.

_"__is that… like… a problem?"_

_"__No… to some people it is… but, it isn't to me…"_

_"__so… you're gay too?"_

_"__To be honest, I'm not entirely sure… I kind of… like both"_

_"__So you like girls and boys?"_

_"__yeah" he answered in an embarrassed tone._

_"__do you… like me?"_

_"__What? As a boyfriend?"_

_"__if you like?"_

_"__well—"_

_"__Nope! Forget I said anything… it's weird!"_

_"__Why is it weird?"_

_"__because… you're my friend and you're not supposed to fall in love with your friends!"_

_"__you… love me?"_

I gulped for a moment as I just realised what I had just said… I let it slip! How could I do that, this is going to make things so awkward now, but he did tell me that he loves me… but probably only as a friend, right?

I didn't know how I was supposed to answer that… I began to sweat like crazy and I couldn't stop shaking, my heart was beating at, like, a million times a minute and it all felt so wrong and so right at the same time, if I said yes… what would that mean? Me and Ness would be boyfriends? What would Claus think? He'd be opposed to it for sure, then again, he is my brother and would probably be supportive, right? Time was running out, I had to say something!

_"__Um… Yes?" _I answered.

Then me and Ness both heard a loud, high-pitched squeal interrupt our telepathic conversation.

_"__Wait? Who else is listening?!" _Asked Ness panickily.

_"… __hiiiiiiiiiiiii…" _said the voice.

_"__Kumatora?!" _I asked frantically.

_"__WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!" _Asked Ness in a tone that suggested that he felt his privacy had been breached. I felt the same in all honesty. _"THIS WAS A PRIVATE CHAT! HOW MUCH DID YOU HEAR?!"_

_"… __All of it… heh" _answered Kumatora nervously.

_"__WHY WERE YOU LISTENING?!" _I asked in a panic.

_"__well, I felt someone open a psychic channel and I thought that Giegue might be sending another message to Ness in his sleep… so I listened in…"_

_"__WHY DIDN'T YOU LEAVE WHEN YOU REALISED IT WAS JUST ME AND LUCAS?!"_ asked Ness.

_"__Because… I'm nosey… it was reeeeeeaaaaaaally cute though!" _she answered.

_"__WHA—CUTE?!"_

This was too much for me, I felt so uncomfortable, I felt like someone took an embarrassing photo of me and sent it to everyone I know, I couldn't even comprehend how intruded upon I felt… I wasn't angry that she listened in, I was angry because I said what I said when she was listening… how did we not sense her? Can she hide her presence or something?

_"__OKAY! I'M OUT! I'M GOING TO SLEEP! CAN WE NOT TALK ABOUT THIS AT BREAKFAST!?" _said Ness in a slightly annoyed tone. _"GOOD NIGHT!"_

And just like that, Ness's presence was gone, I followed suit and cut off the psychic channel, I then turned over in my bed, clutching a pillow in my arms, and started reviewing what just happened and then dreading the morning to come.

Kumatora was way too excited to sleep that night, instead of sleeping, she initiated a psychic chat with Paula, so she could 'dish' about what she had heard.

_"__Paula! Paula! PAULA!"_

_"__Huh? What? What's happening?" _answered Paula, the way she answered indicated that she had previously fallen asleep before Kumatora's rude awakening.

_"__NESSCAS IS HAPPENING!"_

_"__Wait? Yo for real?"_ asked Paula in her thick, southern accent.

_"__IT WAS ONLY THE CUTEST THING EVER!"_ exclaimed Kumatora.

_"__Come on! Spill the tea sis!" _responded Paula.

_"__Okay, so first, they both asked each other if they were gay—"_

_"__Are they?"_

_"__They don't know for certain… but, come on, they totes are!"_

_"__Amen!"_

_"__Then Lucas accidentally told Ness that he loves him and that's it!"_

_"__wait! There ain't no kiss… No huggin', no hand-holdin'" _asked Paula disappointedly.

_"__No…?" _Kumatora questioningly answered.

_"__Oh! Well that sucks!"_

_"__Come on gurl! Is this your first-time shipping or what?"_

_"…"_

_"__There doesn't have to be a kiss or anything because the admit they love each other!"_

_"__yeah, but they have to get together… that's how you know your ship has sailed!" _Responded Paula.

_"__True, but, to be honest, I'd die in peace knowing they had finally admitted their feelings for each other" _said Kumatora romantically.

_"__Nope!" _remarked Paula. _"It's not enough for me, they need to kiss and then I could die in peace!"_

_"__Pack it in Paula, you don't want to get shota greedy… remember, they are still kids! For god's sake, Lucas is only 13!"_

_"__I guess…" _mumbled Paula quietly.

_"__But, soon, we'll be ready to commence with phase two!" _said Kumatora.

_"__Yeah?" _asked Paula.

_"__Oh yes!" _responded Kumatora.

The both of them started giggling, both telepathically and out loud, but they were still careful to not wake their sleeping friends.

The sun rose behind a thick wall of black clouds that morning, that's how we knew that Giegue hadn't left this world yet. Well, it was either that or there was going to be some monstrous thunder storm or something. I think it had rained that night too because, although the ground was more or less dry, the petals on the beautiful flowers that my mom held so dearly had little drops of rain on them, that is until those raindrops slid off and onto the ground.

I woke up a little bit later than I would have preferred, but the events of the previous night took it right out of me. I was beckoned down stairs by the pleasant aroma of a mouth-watering breakfast that was being cooked as I took each step, I think I could smell bacon, pancakes, English muffins and… OMELETTES! My favourite food in the entire world, could someone be cooking this… for me?

As I took the last few steps on my stair case, I expected to find Kumatora in the kitchen, making my favourite dish as a way to make up for last night, but instead, I found Ness wearing a cute little apron over the pyjamas I had let him borrow for the past few nights, he had a little bit of flour on his face and in his glossy, black hair. The heat appeared to be getting to him though, as there were little beads of sweat forming on his forehead, he then wiped them away with his fore arm… how poetic, using his fore-arm to wipe his fore-head. I didn't mean to ogle, but there was something about watching him cook, he looked so free, so unburdened by the events of yesterday. He looked so cool as he flipped that pancake with so much ease, his tongue slightly sticking out of his lips as he focused on not letting it fall to the ground and splatting everywhere, there were little spots on his apron, I guessed from some kind of fruit as the spots were coloured red, pink, orange and a deep indigo. He looked over to the stairs where he saw me standing with one of my shoulders leaning against the wall with my arms folded and my legs crossed, he smiled so I smiled back.

"Morning sunshine!" said Ness.

"Morning!" I returned whilst giggling.

I then stepped off the last step and approached the kitchen as my stomach began to rumble. I eyed up the delectable treats in front of me as I tried to stop my mouth from watering.

"I hope you don't mind" said Ness innocently. "I found a hand-written recipe book in the cupboard with loads of gems that I just had to try, like these pancakes and waffles…"

"That's my mom's recipe book!" I said excitedly. The words I chose, however, seemed to give Ness the impression that I was upset that he had used my mom's recipe book.

"I'm sorry, I just thought that you'd like some home cooking for breakfast instead of food from the market like every other morning—"

"Ness! It's okay!"

"It is?"

"yeah! I can't wait to try it! I bet it's just like how my mom used to make!" I added.

"oh… well I don't know about that, but I hope you like it!"

I then sat down, ready to indulge in some home-cooked breakfast treats that had been lovingly cooked by Ness. I hoped they all tasted as good as they looked and smelled. This was a strange moment for me though, I didn't know that Ness liked to cook, I liked to cook, but I never wanted to try using my mom's recipes, just in case they didn't taste as good as I remember.

Ness then approached the table with a plate in his hand and a knife and fork in the other.

What sat on this white plate was none other than my favourite food, omelettes.

The omelette was perfectly, and evenly cooked, stringy, melty cheese oozed out of the fold in the omelette, there was also some chopped up peppers of all colours and mushrooms in the omelette batter, my mouth watered as I sighed an 'mmmm' without thinking, Ness then cut off a little bit of the omelette, put it on the fork and then held it up to my face.

"say 'ah'" commanded Ness lovingly.

I then opened my mouth in response and he gently shoved the fork in my mouth, the omelette then slid off the fork as Ness removed it from my mouth, as the omelette hit my tongue, my mouth exploded with flavour, it was amazing! It was just like how my mom used to make it for me and Claus… it was so yummy that I insisted that Ness try some.

"Mmmm! So yummy!" I said affectionately as I blushed. "Ness! You have to try some!"

"Okay" said Ness as he cut off another chunk of omelette and eagerly shoved it in his mouth. "Mmmm! Dee-lishus!"

I couldn't help myself, I had to chomp down the rest of the omelette, it was so flavoursome! This flashback to my childhood allowed me to escape the troubles of the modern day. I would liken it to how someone may seek to get dead drunk and numb the pain of their past, except, this was okay because it was delicious food and not vodka or beer.

I let out a silent burb as I finished up the final bite that was left on my plate, I could happily go for seconds if there were any. Ness then served up a great big pile of pancakes with a ceramic jug of maple syrup that came from a 'Mrs Butterworth' bottle and a little saucer that had a block of pale-yellow butter on it.

"HEY GUYS! BREAKFAST IS READY!" yelled Ness in an attempt to wake up Kumatora and Jeff.

I then heard a loud thump, as if someone had just stumbled and fell out of bed. I then heard the sound of a quick and repetitive thumping on the stairs, probably some very heavy-footed running, Kumatora was the first one to make it to the dining room, Jeff soon followed, they both stopped for a second to eye up the marvellous stack of pancakes that stood in front of them. They then sat down, said a morning greeting and piled the pancakes on their plates. Ness then did the same.

Nothing could be heard except for the sound of knives and forks scraping against the plates and the sound of people chewing and making 'mmmm' sounds.

About fifteen minutes had passed and everyone's plates had been cleared, with the exception of the remaining maple syrup that formed a little puddle on the plates.

I proceeded to clear the table and then thanked Ness for his wonderful cooking, I wanted to do the washing up, but Jeff insisted so I allowed it.

"You truly are a fantastic chef, Ness!" I told.

Ness started to blush as he scratched the back of his head. "hehehe… thanks!" he giggled.

Kumatora then nudged an eyebrow as she looked at us both, she then looked away and helped Jeff with the dishes.

Claus had asked that I bring him some clothes that are more suitable to his liking. He'd grown tired of his black jacket with the fluffy collar and brown shorts by the sounds of things. Kumatora said she was ready and willing to use her healing powers on our injured friends, provided that we create a distraction for the Nurse, so she doesn't find out about Kumatora's and by extension, our powers.

Ness picked up a basket and gently placed some waffles and pancakes inside it, he then placed a red and white, checked cloth on top of it to keep it fresh. He was going to bring them for our injured, and likely, hungry friends.

We all got dressed into our clean clothes and then made our way to the hospital. Being sure to bring the clothes Claus asked for as well as the yummy treats Ness had made.

***KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK***

"Cooome iiiiiiin!" yelled a very familiar, female voice.

We then entered with our 'gifts' in hand. We were greeted by the smiling faces of our recovering friends.

"Hey!" said Poo excitedly. "are you all alright?"

"Are we alright? That's what we should be asking you!" I answered.

"Well we're doing okay, considering yesterday…" responded Poo.

"well we bought some pick-me-ups for you guys to help you feel better!" said Ness.

Around this time, Duster started to come to.

"Huh… Kumatora?... donde esta Kumatora?" asked Duster in a tone that suggests he was very disoriented.

_"__I didn't know he could speak Spanish?" _Kumatora thought to herself.

"Yes Duster… I'm here…" said Kumatora as she approached his bed side.

"Mi amor… Te amo, llegar con mi por favor!" said Duster in Spanish for some reason, I think he had one too many blows to the head.

"Anyone know what he's on about?" asked Kumatora.

"Nope! He's been doing that since last night" Claus added.

We all started giggling as we tried to comprehend what Duster was saying, then Claus pulled out an iPhone from his pocket and used google translate to determine what Duster was saying.

"My love, I love you, stay with me please!" said a female robot voice from Claus's iPhone.

"Claus! You have an iPhone?" I asked in awe.

"Duster loves Kumatora?" asked Ness confusingly.

"Um… doesn't everyone… hahahahaha… help me!" said Kumatora nervously.

Everyone looked puzzled, but then shrugged it off, then Kumatora signalled for the distraction so she could heal everyone, but we didn't understand her signal, so she went ignored.

"Screw it!" said Kumatora out loud as she gathered the healing PSI in her hands and then let it pulsate and be absorbed into everyone's beaten and weary body.

The Nurse stood a little bit shocked and dumbfounded but all of that was rendered mute when she fainted from the shock.

No-one dared to say a word as the healing light soon filled the room and rejuvenated our friends. Thanks to the healing, Paula regained consciousness as the gash in her leg soon closed and a new layer of skin soon formed. Poo and Duster had the light wash over their entire bodies and heal every wound they suffered. Claus's arm was then completely healed despite his fracture and all the bruises soon faded away.

Claus looked at his arm for a second in disbelief and then took the sling off and stretched it out. "amazing" he mumbled under his breath.

Everyone who was previously lying in a hospital bed (excluding the old man) stood up and examined themselves, they then signed the discharge papers and walked out without the awareness of the Nurse who was placed in one of the now vacant hospital beds as she remained unconscious.

We then made our way back to my house to celebrate the win from yesterday, did we win? No! but, we did stop the pig mask army and save Claus, now we just have one more person left to defeat and that would be Giegue. Indeed, a celebration was in order.


	14. Chapter 14: A Party and An Alter Ego

After returning home, we blew up some balloons and put on some cheery music, Ness bought out some food and laid it on the table. There were little burgers, sandwiches, sliced apple, grapes, watermelon, gummy bears, brownies, cookies and sausage rolls. It was quite marvellous.

"Hey Lucas?" asked Jeff.

"Yeah?"

"Where does all this food come from?"

"Um… huh?... where does this food come from?" I responded confusingly.

"WE HAVE A MAGIC MR. SATURN FRIDGE!" Yelled Kumatora from the kitchen. "IT RESTOCKS ON ITS OWN… ISN'T THAT CONVENIENT!"

"Wait? Our fridge is made from Mr. Saturns?" I asked curiously as I walked to the kitchen to inspect the fridge. "Huh! It is Mr. Saturn!" I said as I pointed to the top of the fridge which had a little red bow that joined about five strands of hair together.

"Ah! Fantastico!" said Duster as he shoved a cheese burger into his mouth. "Que Rico!"

"Duster why are you speaking Spanish?" asked Poo. "you couldn't before—"

"NO SOY DUSTER! SOY LUCKY!" responded Duster angrily.

"Okay, I'm lost… anyone?" said Poo.

"Allow me!" said Jeff. "I happen to speak seven languages, one of which is Spanish!"

"You speak seven languages? Where's that information been this whole time?" asked Ness.

"Correct! I speak Spanish, French, Mandarin, Italian, Greek, German and Portuguese!"

"You didn't say English…"

"Oh! Then I speak eight languages… I never fail to surprise." Said Jeff as he pushed his glasses further up his nose. "He said… I am not Duster, I am lucky!"

"But his name is Duster—" said Poo as he was rudely interrupted.

"Lucky!" responded Duster… or should I say Lucky.

"but—"

"Lucky!"

Claus then came down from the stairs dressed in his usual blue and green shirt with the dark blue shoes, he had cleaned his face and removed the energy cannon from his left arm leaving his own pale arm to bask in the light, he must have worn that cannon for a very long time as his arm was very, very pale.

Seeing him like this was like the last three years of his absence had just never happened. It almost made me cry with relief.

"Ah! That's much better!" said Claus as he eyed himself up. "After three years, those clothes were beginning to stink!"

"Beginning to?" asked Paula.

"What? Was it THAT noticeable?"

"Yahuh! Dude, I could smell you from Tanetane island…"

"That's not very nice!" cried Claus. "I could smell YOU from Tanetane…" muttered Claus under his breath.

He then looked over to me, Kumatora and Ness who were all gathered in the kitchen, he beckoned Ness over with a whisper and then dragged him outside the log cabin.

The pair stood at the bottom of the stairs, talking in private.

"So? What's your deal?" asked Claus suspiciously.

"My deal?" replied Ness.

"Well I've only been back for about two days and I can already tell that you and my brother… have chemistry…" said Claus in almost a disgusted tone. "do you like him or not…?"

"WHERE'S THIS COMING FROM?!" replied Ness in a panicky tone.

"Oh come on! Don't play dumb!" said Claus as he began to scowl at Ness. "He clearly likes you so what are ya doin'?"

"Well…"

"SPIT IT OUT BEFORE I BEAT IT OUTA YA!"

"I don't want to get too attached to him!" replied Ness, almost at breaking point.

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm from a different world and sooner or later, I'm going to have to go back there and if we start a relationship, it will break his heart as well as mine!" said Ness with little tear drops forming in the corners of his eyes. "I don't want to put him through that, I couldn't"

Claus then put his hand on Ness's shoulder and comforted him.

"That doesn't matter, that's all in the future… take it from someone who has missed three years of actual living…" said Claus comfortingly. "You gotta live in the moment and not worry 'bout the future, if you can love him now, why wouldn't you, it's better than spending the rest of your life regretting the fact that you did nothing…"

"wow, Claus, that actually helped!"

"I know… I'm amazing… but, just remember this…"

"…"

"There IS an expiration date on your relationship… so, if you hurt him before then… **_I will hunt you to the ends of the Earth and slaughter you with an honest to God smile on my face and then I will stuff you and place you outside this very log cabin as a warning to others_**… You'll have me to deal with!" Said Claus in a sinister tone.

"Um… thanks… I guess?" remarked Ness.

"Don't mention it… **_Ever_**!" replied Claus. "Let's go back in, they're probably wondering where we are…"

As Claus finished that sentence, he stepped up the porch and opened the front door, Ness who was still standing at the bottom of the steps, had a dumbfounded look upon his face but then shrugged it off and followed Claus inside.

Kumatora, Jeff, Paula and Lucky were sitting around the coffee table discussing 'who would win in a fight between Porky without his suit and a Grizzly bear' while Poo and I were talking about our powers, he seemed a little envious of my ability to use PK Love. Claus and Ness then joined us. Ness looked rather tense while Claus looked content… it seemed what they had discussed had made Ness seem a little on-edge, I wonder what it could have been.

"Oh hey guys!" I yelled. "What about your powers? What can you guys do?"

"Wait? Powers?" asked Claus.

"Yes my carrot top friend… powers!" replied Poo.

"Watch it bald man" Said Claus in retort.

"I'm _hardly bald_!" said Poo as he flipped his weird braided ponytail in disgust.

"Well…" said Ness while trying to change the subject. "I have my PK Flash and my PSI rockin' as well as my shield!"

"I have my PK Star storm and a few little healing tricks and defensive powers!" said Poo.

"I have PK Love and PK flash and a couple of different types of shield… and I can use life-up alpha!" I said.

We then all looked towards Claus, expecting him to add to the conversation.

"Oh… I don't have any powers…" said Claus disappointedly.

"Didn't one of the Magypsies give you a PSI technique to use when you went to fight the mecha-drago?" I asked curiously.

"Well yeah… but, I couldn't really get the hang of it…"

"What technique was it?" asked Poo.

"I think it was called PK Fire…"

"But something doesn't make sense…" said Ness cryptically. "You're Lucas' twin, so shouldn't you also be a psychic?"

"Well neither one of our parents was a psychic." I added. "yet I'm still a psychic so surely you can become one too?"

"Do I have psychic potential?" asked Claus.

"Not definitely, but I didn't before I got my powers… at least I'm pretty sure." I replied.

"…"

Poo then closed his eyes and hummed a couple of times before opening them again and eying Claus up and down a couple of times, he then shook his head in disappointment.

"I'm sorry, it seems that you don't have any psychic potential…" said Poo in a low tone.

"Oh… that's a shame…" said Claus disappointedly.

Kumatora stood up from the coffee table discussion and dragged Paula to another room so they could talk in private… obviously about shipping… as always.

"So… Phase two happened… without us." Said Kumatora sadly.

"I know… we weren't even there to watch our beautiful ship sail." Said Paula as she began to sob.

"We need to come up with a phase three!" said Kumatora.

"But what?" asked Paula.

They both stood with their index fingers positioned on their chins as they fell deep in thought about how they would commence with their phase three.

…

…

…

Kumatora then snapped her fingers as an idea flew into her brain.

"I've got it!"

"What is it?!" asked Paula.

"Oh this is good!" said Kumatora as she began to giggle uncontrollably. Paula then joined in. The dastardly duo began to conspire once more.

"So Jeff, eres muy intelegente, no?" asked Lucky.

"Si! Soy muy intelegente y puedo hablar ocho idiomases y tengo cinco bachilleratos!" replied Jeff.

"Ah! Que Fantastico!" added Lucky.

Claus was looking over to Poo questionably.

"This is driving me crazy! Why are they speaking Spanish?!" asked Claus frustratedly.

"I don't know! It's so infuriating, I can't understand a word they're saying!"

"But hey, at least it's not Japanese!"

"What? You mean the weeaboo language?" asked Poo.

"Yeah!"

"I know right… weeaboonese is so confusing, I tried to learn it once, but I got nowhere."

"HEY! YOU TWO NEED TO STOP REFERENCING ANOTHER FAN FICTION!" yelled Ness in a panic.

"What are you talking about?!" asked Poo.

"I can't name names… Just stop!" added Ness. "that's copyright infringement!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Okay fine" muttered Claus under his breath.

Kumatora and Paula were still in the other room talking about phase three of their plan, a lot of loud giggling could be heard, needless to say they were being far from subtle. Although the others in the living room could hear the giggling, they couldn't hear the actual words being exchanged from Kumatora and Paula.

"This is perfect!" cried Paula. "But, how are we supposed to make it happen?"

"Good point… I hadn't considered that…" responded Kumatora. "Oh! How about this?"

"Let's hear it!"

"We play it off as a training exercise for Giegue and get everyone involved!"

"But, we're trying to get Nesscas to happen? It can't happen if there are people around to watch!" cried Paula.

"We watch!" remarked Kumatora.

"Yeah but, that isn't the same… we only wish to indulge in the beautiful shota!"

"True!"

"Oh! I know!" cried Paula.

"What?" asked Kumatora.

"We create 'random' teams and put Ness and Lucas on the same team!"

"My, my, how the student is becoming the master!"

"Thank ya!" blushed Paula

"This could work! Oh! Another idea!"

"Spill, girl, Spill!"

"What if we give each team a genre and we'll give Nesscas a ballad?"

"Oh that's perfect! I still have a way to go before I'm the master!"

"Yeah, you do!" responded Kumatora.

The pair began to rub their hands together and laugh evilly before suddenly changing to an innocent demeaner and re-joining the rest of the group in the living room. Kumatora then informed the group that she had to use the rest-room and would be beck down in a few minutes.

"if you'll excuse me, I have to go and spend a penny in the little girl's room!" said Kumatora innocently. From this we all sat a little confused, Kumatora had never really talked in such an elegant manor before, it was almost like she went from a tom-boy to a lady during her conversation with Paula… until this happened.

"To take a giant dump!"

"AAAAH!" cried everyone now seeing that Kumatora had finally returned to normal or was putting on an act for some reason.

She then disappeared up stairs and as she approached the bathroom, her eyes began to glow a subtle light blue before she fell to her knees as she whispered "Oh Crap! Not now!"

Kumatora desperately crawled into the bathroom as something strange washed over her, the door was closed and locked behind her.

Roughly twenty-five minutes had passed since we last saw Kumatora go up stairs and we were beginning to get worried, we had heard some loud thumping and crashing, but we thought nothing of it because it's Kumatora that we're talking about but after all this time, we had a right to be concerned.

At long last, we heard the bathroom door open and someone emerged from it, however, this person was very light-footed which contrasted with Kumatora's loud walking where she seems to purposefully drag each foot along the ground.

The strange person began to descend down the stairs and join up with us once more.

From the stairs emerged a fairly tall woman with long, pink hair that was tied up in a bun with two long strands and a fringe being left out of it. The woman was dressed in a short beige dress that hugged her hips tightly and tall white heels that looked strangely intimidating. The woman looked identical to Kumatora except she was wearing bright pink lip-stick and eye-shadow and wore copious amounts of eye-liner.

"Konichiwa, my friends"


	15. Chapter 15: The Weeaboo

We all looked at the woman for a few seconds before we realised that it was Kumatora, she looked so different. Paula was the first person to address the mysterious woman.

"K… Kumatora?" asked Paula.

"Ah! I see why you think I am Kumatora, Kumatora and I are same person!" replied the woman in a bizarre Japanese accent just like the one Ness has.

"So _you are _Kumatora?" asked Ness.

"No Kumatora, only Violette. I am Violette!"

"But—"

"Violette!"

Violette then began to inspect Ness after hearing him speak.

"You talk same as me… are you Weeaboo too?" asked Violette.

"What's a weeaboo?" asked Ness.

"AH! That accent! I'm so ureshii, at last! A fellow weeaboo!"

"But I'm not a—"

"Hush little Weeaboo! You Japanese, no?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you Weeaboo!" said Violette in a giggly tone. "Anyone else Weeaboo?"

We all stood shaking our heads in response, she then began to stare at Paula who began to look uneasy.

"Hmmm…" hummed Violette.

Paula gulped as Violette grew closer.

"What're ya doin'?" asked Paula.

"You… you are Fujoshi?" asked Violette.

"What's a—"

"SSSSHHHHHHHHHHH! Do not speak of Fujoshi out loud! People will judge… Let me ask, you like shota or yaoi?"

"Mainly shota, but I like yaoi too!" responded Paula.

"I knew I liked you!" said Violette. "I like shota and yaoi!"

I looked over to the others who all had the same expression on their faces as I did, a look of confusion. Paula seemed to be easing around Violette, it appears that whatever they had discussed was something of interest to her and cheered her up.

"So are you like split personality disorder?" asked Jeff.

"In a way, I suppose… it's more complicated than that…" added Violette.

"how so?" asked Jeff.

"After Kumatora adopted the persona of Violette, a witch cursed her and bought me to life, while she sleep, I am awake."

"So Kumatora fell asleep on the toilet?" Jeff asked, trying to clarify.

"No, sometime, I take over!"

"Do you still have your powers?" asked Poo.

"PSI? yes I still have them." Responded Violette. "This form grown weak, I need sustenance… you have food?"

"Yeah, we're having lunch!" said Ness.

"Lunch? Ah! You mean the meal one consumes at mid-day!" added Violette.

"yes!" replied Ness.

"In the land of the rising sun, we know only of gorging on gargantuan feasts fresh from the super markets of japan, with neither paying, nor their permission." Said Violette suspiciously.

"You steal food?"

"No!"

"But you said—"

"I never said that I lived in japan, it is just what THEY do… I totally don't do it." Added Violette.

"…"

"Fujoshi! Come with me!"

"oh… okay?" responded Paula.

Violette then dragged Paula outside of the log cabin more or less against her will, I believe that it was for a discussion about shipping. Violette may technically be a different person but is still mad about shipping.

"Fujoshi! I need your help!" said Violette in a slightly concerning tone.

"what for?" asked Paula.

"I am not supposed to be able to take Kumatora over!"

"But you said sometimes you take—"

"I lied! Kumatora broke the curse a while ago and I haven't come back since. Something is terribly wrong here!"

"But—"

"You have to help me!"

"Why?"

"The longer I'm here, the more Kumatora disappears… you have to put me back to sleep!" cried Violette.

"How—"

"It really simple! Use PK Hypnosis on me and I should turn back to Kumatora!"

"…"

"Now please… I'm running out of time!"

"Okay!"

Paula then began to charge the PSI in her hands and then let it pulsate all over Violette, Violette then fell asleep.

Violette's eyes then opened and flashed a light blue just as before. She began to panic.

"Paula! How did I get out here?" cried Kumatora who was still dressed as Violette. "EW! WHAT AM I WEARING?!"

"Kumatora?" asked Paula nervously.

"Yeah? You gonna answer me or what?"

"But you were just Violette?"

"How is that possible? I broke that stupid curse that the old hag put on me!"

"…?"

"…!"

"What is it?" asked Paula.

"That BASTARD!"

"What? Who?"

"Giegue!" cried Kumatora. "He bought her back somehow… how am I supposed to get rid of her this time?"

"How did she come into bein'?" asked Paula.

"Three years ago, I got a job at club titiboo and created this persona to hide my identity as a princess. Then I got cursed by that bitch and then Violette was bought to life, when I was asleep, she was awake." Told Kumatora. "I had no control over her… every time she came out, she got stronger and was slowly taking me over to the point where I thought I was going to end up dead!"

"How did you break the curse?" asked Paula.

"One night when I went to sleep, she didn't come out, then I was transported to a weird pink and fluffy world where I was able to confront her… I then killed her."

"What, like for real?"

"yep!" responded Kumatora. "then the curse broke and I was free!"

"oh… well that's fun?"

"It was… err! I mean of course it wasn't fun… I'm not a sadist."

"That world you described… it sounds like magicant…" said Paula cryptically.

"What's magicant?" asked Kumatora.

"A dream world where everything is dead and alive, exists and doesn't at the same time. In magicant, you could see repressed memories, subconscious thoughts and even communicate with dead people!"

"Oh! That explains how I was able to kill Violette then… Giegue must have resurrected her from my subconscious so he could keep us distracted… we have to hide this as much as we can… it will be alright in the short-term as she's still very weak for the time being so let's figure out how to get back to magicant so I can finish her off!"

Paula nodded in response and then proceeded to enter the log cabin, Kumatora knew that she would have to pretend that nothing was wrong for as long as she could. She was still dressed as Violette so she was going to approach the group as Kumatora and then would go upstairs to change her outfit.

Ness, Poo and I were standing in the kitchen as we saw Kumatora dash in, greet the group and disappear upstairs to change her clothes. Paula then came over to us and asked what we're talking about.

"We're discussing how much energy it would take to generate a PK Love-star storm-rockin' attack!" exclaimed Ness.

"isn't that just a combination of your powers?" asked Paula.

"Yeah!" I answered. "It'd be a pretty cool attack, wouldn't it?"

Paula nodded in agreement, I then saw Claus scowling at Ness for some reason. As soon as he noticed me looking at that vicious look on his face, he stopped scowling and then turned around and got something to eat. I began to question Claus's beef with Ness, I soon just shrugged it off thinking that he was simply trying to suss Ness out. He didn't have to be so rude about it.

"Hey Claus, can I talk to you for a second?" I asked nervously.

"Oh yeah! Sure!" replied Claus as he approached the stairs just as I did.

We walked to the top of the stairs, Claus then leant against the wall with his arms folded.

"Why do you keep looking at Ness like you want to kill him?" I asked angrily.

"Oh! Well… it's no reason… **I just don't like his stupid face**… I just don't know him that well!" replied Claus.

"Well instead of being mean to him, why don't you get to know him?"

"If it'll make you happy, I'll try to get to know him better… **I can discover his weaknesses and then I can plan to use them against him**… and maybe we'll be good friends"

"Glad to hear it! Put on a smile and try to be nice!"

"Okay _Dad_!" replied Claus sarcastically.

I smirked and then I giggled as we made our way back down those creaky wooden steps back into the living room. Walking down these stairs for the second time today made Claus seem very happy, I suppose he must have missed the small novelties of a normal life with his family. Yet again, he was unaware that anything was a miss for these past three years so perhaps this is a newly founded novelty for him. Now that I had been reunited with my brother, I was no longer burdened by missing my family. Sure, my mom was still dead, and my dad hadn't returned for about three months, but now, it was different. Claus was back in my life and that's all my parents would want, after all. The bonds between ordinary siblings is strong, Claus, on the other hand, is more than just a sibling. He's my older twin, the bond we share runs far deeper than love.

Claus can be a little bit difficult at times, however. Even when we were younger, he would play pranks on me all the time, and odds are that I'd end up crying. It didn't take long for everyone to note me down as the 'cry baby' of the family, after all, there's always one. He was never trying to be mean, he was just trying to have fun… at my expense. But, he would always apologise if he made me cry, he was a good brother in that sense. Mom wouldn't even have to force him to do so, like me, he is genuinely kind… I wonder if his kindness was untouched by the pig masks.

Night fell as quickly as the day had started, as a natural result, Kumatora had taken Duster or Lucky back to Yado Inn for a restful night's sleep as well as Poo and Jeff who had followed suit. Now the only people in my house were Ness, Claus, Paula and myself. It would surely be a comfortable night with such an empty house. Claus wanted to have a night to ease back into life in this house that we call home, so he chose to sleep in Mom and Dad's bed so he could feel closer to the both of them. I'm certain that he would sleep well tonight. Since Claus wanted the entire double bed to himself, either Paula or Ness would have to share with me, of course I secretly wanted Ness to share with me, but it was for him and Paula to decide amongst themselves.

"I AM NOT GOING TO SHARE A BED WITH LUCAS, HE'S MALE!"

"Paula… I don't mind, we've been over this, I've shared a bed with Lucas already so what's the harm in another night?" exclaimed Ness.

I was creeping around the corner of the stairs so I could spy on the two and see which decision they make, hoping Ness would choose to sleep in my bed. I was in luck. I didn't want Ness to sleep in my bed for any weird reason… nothing like that special kind of hug that adults give each other. No, I just wanted to be close to him, without being around the others. I always like our time together, even though it can be awkward as hell sometimes, but that's only when I say something like 'I love you' at the worst time imaginable, sometimes our telepathic chats are the best moments of my day.

Now that I knew Ness chose to sleep in my bed tonight, I suddenly felt really flustered and nervous… I think that now we were at such an awkward place and have already admitted that we love each other, it was a fair assumption that one more telepathic chat and we'd be boyfriends and that one notion freaked me out. If we were boyfriends, I don't even know… I want to be his boyfriend, but I don't know how to be one… I'm only 13 and I'm already experiencing love? Was I simply confused?

All of the basics that I know about being in a relationship is that we only need to love each other lots and lots. I already do and so does Ness to my understanding, so what was the problem… I guess its because he'd be my first boyfriend. I've never been in any kind of relationship, I'm not sure I'd be any good at it… but, someone has to be my first, right?

Once again like the other night, I gently placed a plump and soft pillow at the end of the bed with my own pillow being positioned directly opposite it. The duvet looked very warm and puffy and I also had a blanket on Ness's end of the bed, just in case he got cold.

"Hey…" said Ness as he entered my bedroom dressed in his Mr. Saturn pyjamas. "You ready for bed?"

"Yeah… I just need to brush my teeth, feel free to get tucked in." I responded.

"Okay" told Ness as he jumped into the bed and snuggled up in the duvet.

I then disappeared into the bathroom and proceeded to brush my teeth, I didn't take too long though, however, when I returned, Ness had already fallen into a deep and pleasant sleep. He looked so peaceful, and kinda cute. I tried my best not to wake him when I climbed into bed, I then delved into the soft and puffy bed and drifted off to sleep. I wonder what he was dreaming about.


	16. Chapter 16: A Mother's Love

_This chapter will be told from Ness's point of view._

I laid in bed, floating in a deep and black void which was a world built in my mind. I laid asleep for roughly two hours until a faint and seemingly far away light began to glow. The light then seemed to get closer and closer until it finally enveloped my body and a cute and fluffy, pink world appeared before my eyes. I stood on a soft ground surrounded by pink, swirly trees that looked like they were made of candy-floss and a distant lake with a breath takingly big waterfall cascading in to the latter. Large scenes from my memory were displayed on the pale-pink sky, both memories that I cherished and memories that I had wished I could forget… a memory of my mom and my sister then displayed, this was the only moment in which I began to feel homesick. Of course, I missed my family, but I guess I hadn't realised just how much until now. There was only one place where one could see their memories can being displayed in the sky, Magicant!

I couldn't help but wonder why I was bought here. In previous trips to Magicant, there was always something important for me to see, be it a message from my younger self or to communicate with a dead person.

I stood there, all alone for what seemed like hours… in reality, I had only waited for, like, 15 minutes. That is until a heavenly figure descended from the clouds, shrouded by the light from above.

This spirit was a lady, most likely around thirty years in age. She was wearing a pretty red dress with a black belt around her waist, she had bright red lips and long eyelashes. Her hair was long and was a light, chestnut-brown and sat there smoothly as it draped from her head down to her chest. The female figure had finally finished her descent from the clouds and floated little way above the ground. She smiled with her eyes closed and her cheeks blushing slightly as she waved in a friendly way.

"Hello!" said the figure. "You must be Ness!"

"Yeah… I am, who're you?" I responded.

"My name is Hinawa… I'm the mother of your friend, Lucas."

"Oh! It's very nice to meet you!" I said happily.

"Likewise!" said Hinawa.

She then smiled charmingly and beckoned me to walk beside her.

"I'm so very glad that my boy met such a lovely lad, such as yourself." Said Hinawa in a lightly pitched voice. Her presence was angelic and made me feel at ease. I can see why Lucas would mourn the death of such a wonderful and loving mother so heavily.

"Oh yeah?" I asked curiously.

"Indeed… you may not be aware, but, before I died, Lucas was a very shy and quite wimpy little boy. The world around him scared him deeply. Because of this, I found my own passing really quite troubling as I wouldn't be there to help him conquer his fears."

"But he seems so confident and lively?" I asked.

"That's the wonder that friendship has bought him" told Hinawa. "He met Duster and Kumatora shortly after I passed and they soon made his life better by teaching him not to be scared of the world… even still, Lucas never felt comfortable in his own skin."

"Oh really?" I questioned.

"That's why I'm so glad he met you…" said Hinawa in a giggly tone.

"Why?"

"You taught him how to be himself…" said Hinawa cryptically.

"How so?" I asked.

"Well… um… he's gay, isn't he?"

"ERR—"

"Why am I questioning you about it? I've known ever since he was a little boy, I may not have been around recently, but I was still watching over him… I could tell by the way he looks at you… with that little sparkle in his eyes." Told Hinawa romantically.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"Because… I know that you're scared of saying goodbye to him, I understand that. But, you need to get over this fear…"

"Why? I don't want to hurt him like that, leaving him would break his heart!"

"That may be true… but the way he feels about you, it would hurt him ten-times more if you never acted on those feelings" said Hinawa.

"…"

"Just tell him that you love him, and the rest will unfold naturally… just know that I'm routing for the both of you!" giggled Hinawa.

Me and Hinawa passed the hours away as we walked around Magicant, talking and learning plenty about each other. She taught me so much about Lucas and Claus from when they were a lot younger and why they are the way they are now. The reason I feel that Claus is being so hostile towards me is because he is over-protective of Lucas. I couldn't ask him to stop being such, but now, he doesn't need to be so over-protective because Lucas is much stronger now and can take care of himself and make his own decisions. Lucas has come a long way in his own right… he fought off his demons, took down an army and rescued a stranger from another world. He has a lot to be proud of.

"Ah! My dear boy, it's time for you to go, I'm afraid… the sun has begun to rise!" said Hinawa in a cheery tone that had a hint of sadness in it.

"How can you tell?" I asked curiously.

"I just can!"

"Okay… sure?" I responded questioningly.

"I'll love ya and leave ya now then… just one more thing…" said Hinawa cryptically.

"What is it?"

"Remember that love is the most important thing in the entire world… embrace it when you get the chance… oh! And can you give my baby boys a hug from mama please?"

"I'll try!"

"Okay then… just so you know, I will be able to communicate with you now that we have met here… I'll try and be discrete about it, after all, I wouldn't want to make my boys upset, goodbye for now, Ness!"

"Goodbye Hinawa!"

Hinawa then began to ascend into the pink sky once again, waving as she did so, beaming with a grin.

"Embrace his love, Ness!" yelled Hinawa as she disappeared.

A blinding flash of light appeared as she disappeared and just like that, she was gone. Was she right? Should I embrace Lucas' love? I mean, I love him deeply, every time I see him, my heart beats faster and faster, I get dizzy and I get butterflies and goose bumps everywhere. I guess maybe it would be worth acting on my feelings… but, how would I do so?


	17. Chapter 17: Sing your heart out! (Pt 1)

Both me and Lucas woke up to a loud thump from outside the house, we both looked at each other with a panicked expression as we leapt out of bed, ran down the stairs and out the door to find out the origin of that ungodly noise. We sprinted down the stairs of the porch, and to our surprise, we found Kumatora moving big wooden crates to make what looked like a stage of some kind. There were a couple of spotlights that were beside the six crates, they illuminated in the colours of red, blue and yellow and lit up the crate-stage thing. It was a little destressing to see a microphone sitting on a chair next to one of the lights, but, for all I knew, it could have been a stand-up comedy thing.

"Oh! Morning boys! Hope your voices are well rested!" said Kumatora ominously.

I gulped at hearing that last remark, yeah, I've sung before in my room when I was alone, but, I have never sung in front of anyone. I felt as though my face looked terrified, but mine was nothing compared to Lucas's. His blonde eyebrows were pointed upwards in fear, his little lips were trembling ever so slightly and the fear in his eyes resembled the look of terror that a rabbit caught in headlights displays. I just wanted to give him a hug, but I knew that Kumatora would squeal if I had.

Kumatora then dashed into the house and loudly woke up the others in the house, they were then dragged out by their shirts and thrown onto the grass in front of the six-crate stage. They looked around in horror as they tried to work out what had just happened. Not long after, Poo and Jeff converged on the scene.

"Hey! Where's Duster?" asked Kumatora.

"Oh! He's talking with someone in the village… Fuel I think…?" said Jeff.

"Fuel?!" asked Claus excitedly.

"Yeah, I think so!" responded Jeff.

"Yay!" exclaimed Claus in an oddly high-pitched voice.

Just as Claus had finished, loud footsteps could be heard from a distance.

"Where is he?! Where is my little carrot top?!" said a mysterious boy, the same age as Lucas, presumably. This boy had a burgundy-brown head of hair and was wearing a white t-shirt with red sleeves and had a cute and chubby face.

"FUEL!" screamed Claus as he jumped into the air and grabbed Fuel and gave him the tightest hug he could muster. They stood there hugging for a good 30 seconds.

"Did someone say, 'carrot top'?" said an unknown female voice. "Ya know, there is only one carrot top I know, and he's meant to be dead. Unless he came back from the dead, weirder things have happened, like that time I saw a cat jump from a really tall building on YouTube and then it ran away after landing. I wonder how many lives it lost when it jumped. Ya know, I don't really believe that cats have nine lives, but they do seem to survive everything. Hey, did I tell you that I mastered playing the piano and now I can play, like, 3 whole songs and I'm pretty good, I wonder if carrot top would let me teach him how to play the piano, I wonder how good he'd be, speaking of whom, where's Clausie boy?"

"Nana? That you-?" asked Claus as he was rudely interrupted.

"Silly Claus of course its me. So how was being dead? I never thought that you'd come back so this is kinda a miracle, eh? Did you die and then come back to life or were you just turned into a cyborg? Was it that Porky guy? I never met him but, I did go to New Pork City and it all looked very weird and felt strange too! I kind of wanted to stay here in Tazmily village, but I thought I should go because everyone else did. Hey! Do you have magic powers like Lucas, I've never seen him use them, but I heard its really cool?" asked Nana as she took a very deep breathe in.

Lucas, Paula, Jeff, Poo and I all looked at Nana with a bit of a puzzled expression, Kumatora simply giggled and Claus and Fuel stood there hugging with a lovey-dovey expression on their faces.

Duster then appeared in the garden and he seemed to be out of breath. He was also continuing to speak Spanish, it was so fast and poorly pronounced that not a single word could be made out.

"Gibberish… Non-sense… Bunch of Spanish sounding syllables" said Duster.

"Paula!" yelled Kumatora.

"On it!" replied Paula.

Paula then took out a frying pan from… somewhere… and lobbed it at Duster's head making a loud clang sound as it did so. He then sat up and rubbed his head.

"Gah! What the HELL?!" screamed Duster in pain. "That hurt SO MUCH! What is your problem? I probably have brain damage because of you—"

Kumatora walked up to Duster in a lady-like fashion and gently swatted the back of his head to make him shut up. She then gave an innocent smile and walked back to where she was standing.

"Ya know, sometimes, I do love a little torturing here and there!" remarked Kumatora to Paula.

"Oh! I didn't realise you had a sadistic side, Kumatora!" responded Paula.

"What sadistic side?" giggled Kumatora.

Lucas and I simply smiled at each other in a way that said, "Another weird day!" I then looked over to see Paula creeping round the corners of the porch as she watched Claus and Fuel hug each other. She then began to creep in closer.

"So Claus… are you and Fuel a thing?" asked Paula slyly.

"What – No! — "responded Claus.

"But I thought we—" said Fuel as Claus quickly put his hand over the former's mouth in a panic.

"As I SAID! Me and Fuel are just really close friends… the closest… hehehe"

"Yeah okay! Keep telling yourselves that, keep in mind that the longer you keep up this charade, the more you'll hurt Fuel's feelins'" responded Paula as she grinned and walked off.

Lucas then looked at me as if he had a question.

"Hmmm…" mumbled Lucas.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's just… well… What if what Paula said is true?"

"What do you mean?"

"The longer someone pretends to not be with someone, the more you hurt their feelings…"

"Are you talking about us?"

"…"

"Cause you would tell me if it was making you feel bad, right?" I asked curiously.

"I guess so…" responded Lucas. "Do you feel bad when I say we're not together?"

"I would tell you, that's a promise!"

"Should we stop pretending?"

"Well someone very wise once told me 'when you find someone who you want to be with, you should embrace it, no matter what other people will say and no matter if it will come to an end." I added.

"Well… Yay!" responded Lucas. "Are we boyfr—"

Just as Lucas tried to finish his question which my heart longed to be asked. Kumatora stepped on top of the crates with the microphone in her hand that was held up to her mouth.

"Okay guys!" said Kumatora as the sound of her breath made a deafening screech from the speakers. "Sorry bout that! At least we know the mic works! Anyway, you're probably wondering what this is all about, am I right?"

"Yahuh!" yelled Duster in response.

"NO SPEAKING!" yelled Kumatora as she sent a pulse of energy in his direction.

"But YOU ASKED A QUESTION!"

"NO SPEAKING!" repeated Kumatora. "anyways, we are going to be doing the first of many training exercises that I have planned today. This one is all about conquering your fears… SO WE WILL BE DOING KARAOKE!"

"Oh dear god NO!" I heard Lucas mutter under his breath.

"Okay, so here are the rules… you will be put into teams and there will be two rounds that follow, the first round is individual songs that you must pick by yourselves and the team song that you will be told to sing. The teams will be teams of two and I have already decided what they'll be so don't bother getting into teams now. You can sing anything so long as it isn't K-POP. I swear to god, I will murder anyone who sings K-POP. There are no winners and no losers, you must complete any song, you cannot refuse to sing the song you are given, and **everyone must take part**!"

Looking around, the only people who didn't seem terrified of this afore mentioned task were Duster and Paula, I assumed they're good singers. I've never heard Paula sing, so we'll see what happens.

"This isn't a contest so there will be no judgement… maybe some mocking… and a couple boos… and I will be taking part too! For the first round, you only need to sing the first verse and chorus of a song, pick a good song everyone! Now for the teams…"

We all waited in horror to hear who was on what team until a TV screen beside the crate-stage that Kumatora had inexplicably obtained, lit up displaying the teams.

Team 1: Ness and Lucas

Team 2: Claus and Fuel

Team 3: Kumatora and Paula

Team 4: Jeff and Poo

Team 5: Duster and Nana

"Hey Kumatora?" asked Claus.

"Yeah?"

"How'd you know Fuel and Nana would be here?"

"Easy! I invited them!"

Claus did not say anything in response, although his facial expression seemed to say that he was very happy with this arrangement, very happy indeed.

"Kumatora! This is really mean!" yelled Lucas displaying the 'cry baby' demeaner that Hinawa had previously told me about.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not a good singer!"

"Yeah! Neither am I!" yelled Jeff in agreement.

"Are any of you good singers?" asked Kumatora slyly.

"**I AM!**" yelled an unknown, high-pitched, male's voice.

We all looked around as we tried to determined where the voice had originated. Suddenly, from beside the stage, opened a portal, from which emerged a boy, roughly my height. He was wearing a red, white and blue striped shirt and had a red bandana loosely tied around his neck. He also was wearing a baseball cap that was very similar to mine, except he had his pointed to the left instead of the right.

_"__Who's that hottie?!"_ Claus thought to himself as he ogled at the mysterious male.

"I'm sorry! Who are you?" asked Kumatora as the unknown boy stepped onto the stage and stood beside her.

"My name's Ninten! I have to say, this is a cool stage you got here, mister!"

**"****I'M NOT A BOY**!" yelled Kumatora as she raised her hand to slap him. That was until Duster told her to stop.

"Gee… I'm real sorry… Can I sing to make it up to you?" asked Ninten apologetically.

"Okay sure." Said Kumatora as she sighed and left the stage.

"Alrighty! This is how it's done, guys!" yelled Ninten as if he was proving a point. He then pointed to the speakers for some reason and yelled 'Hit it!', just as he did so, a slow guitar started to play as some piano chords soon chimed in. the boy then began to sing.

**Take a melody!**

**Simple as can be!**

**Give it some words and**

**Sweet harmony**

**Raise your voices**

**All day long now, love grows strong now**

**Sing a melody of love**

**Oh love!**

Everyone clapped for this stranger after hearing his beautiful voice, Ninten then blushed in response. He then began to gaze at me and Lucas, the latter of whom was standing next to me, Ninten then smiled.

"Seriously! Why don't you two just kiss already, you'd make such a cute couple?!" Said Ninten to me and Lucas.

Lucas then went red in the face, I'd liken the embarrassment to being told that your fly was down. I then got a protective urge over Lucas, so I simply did the only thing I could.

"Mr. Author! Get him outta here please!" I yelled.

"Yeah, okay sure!" replied Mr. Author.

Ninten then began to disappear into a strange portal, Claus seemed saddened by this as clear by the small tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes.

"I'll be back!" yelled Ninten as his body became fully submerged into the portal.

Claus then pumped his fist as he whispered 'yes!' to himself. Fuel then looked at him in shock.

"Claus! Why?!" asked Fuel in a very distressed manor.

"Because I'm gay allowed to look at whoever I want, I think this Ninten guy and I could be boyfriends best friends!"

Fuel clearly struggled to hold back his tear drops, but he did it.

Kumatora then stepped onto the stage and ordered that we begin with the karaoke, much to the dismay of the group. She pressed a button on the TV remote, and it began a random selection process of who would be the first to sing. It selected Poo.

"Poo! You're up!" yelled Kumatora.

"Nope!" responded Poo.

"But… you have to, it's the rules… YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE RULES!"

"Nah! There is no way in hell that I'd get up on that stage and sing, Pick someone else!"

"Yeah! I'm with Poo on this one, I'm definitely not going to sing!" yelled Jeff.

"B… B… But… the rules…" Kumatora seemed crushed by the complete dismissal of the rules she had set in place, as a result, I daren't say anything besides, 'yeah, I'll sing, it's not scary!'.

Poo and Jeff then left the garden and headed towards Tazmily with some Dragon points that a frog gave them, I'd guess they were going to go and get something to eat or were going to play some game at the arcade that they had built after New Pork City was destroyed.

Kumatora then composed herself, removed team 5 from the random selection table and began the selection process all over again. It stopped on Nana… much to our dismay.

"Okay Nana, you're up, you can put your backing track on this TV—"

"I don't need a backing track, my voice is enough, I've been told that I'm an Alto, but I don't know what that is, something to do with singing I guess. I never use a backing track when I sing karaoke, I do it quite a lot without one, last time, I sung a really short song, it only took seven minutes, I wonder if I should sing a longer song? Nah! I didn't rest my voice well enough, a shorter song it is…"

"Well… whenever you're ready then…" responded Kumatora. _"Does she think out loud or something?"_

Nana then stepped onto the stage, clutching the microphone with her left arm. She held it up to her mouth and took a deep breath.

**I'm beginnin' to feel like a Rap God, Rap God**

**All my people from the front to the back nod, back nod**

**Now who thinks their arms are long enough to slap box, slap box?**

**They said I rap like a robot, so call me Rap-bot**

**But for me to rap like a computer it must be in my genes**

**I got a laptop in my back pocket**

**My pen'll go off when I half-cock it**

**Got a fat knot from that rap profit**

**Made a livin' and a killin' off it**

**Ever since Bill Clinton was still in office**

**With Monica Lewinsky feelin' on his nutsack**

**I'm an MC still as honest**

**But as rude and as indecent as all hell**

**Syllables, skill-a-holic (kill 'em all with)**

**This flippity dippity-hippity hip-hop**

**You don't really wanna get into a pissin' match**

**With this rappity brat, packin' a MAC in the back of the Ac'**

**Backpack rap crap, yap-yap, yackety-yack**

**And at the exact same time, I attempt these lyrical acrobat stunts while I'm practicin' that**

**I'll still be able to break a motherfuckin' table**

**Over the back of a couple of faggots and crack it in half**

**Only realized it was ironic, I was signed to Aftermath after the fact**

**How could I not blow? All I do is drop F-bombs**

**Feel my wrath of attack**

**Rappers are havin' a rough time period, here's a maxi pad**

**It's actually disastrously bad for the wack**

**While I'm masterfully constructing this masterpièce**

**'Cause I'm beginnin' to feel like a Rap God, Rap God**

**All my people from the front to the back nod, back nod**

**Now who thinks their arms are long enough to slap box, slap box?**

**Let me show you maintainin' this shit ain't that hard, that hard**

**Everybody want the key and the secret**

**To rap immortality like I have got**

We all looked in horror of what we had witnessed, both shocked of what Nana had chosen to sing as well as the fact that she sung all of that on the one, single breath that she took in before she started singing… or rapping. Of course we had to applaud her, despite the appalling language she had spewed at us.

She blushed as she ran her fingers through her ponytail, she then gave the mic back to Kumatora and skipped off stage, eagerly waiting for the next person to sing.

"Okay… that was just awful, do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Lovely, Nana. Onto the next song…" said Kumatora as she selected the TV to randomly pick another singer.

"And it's… me?... yay! It's me!" said Kumatora excitedly. "Because I'm so nice, and eager to hear the rest of you sing, I'll only sing the chorus of my songs!"

"THAT'S BREAKING THE RULES!" yelled Duster.

"Oh yeah?" responded Kumatora angrily. "I made the rules, so I can break 'em!"

"It doesn't work like tha—"

"Don't poke holes in my logic! I'm going to sing now, have a little respect and be quiet!"

Kumatora then centred herself on the stage (because she was already on it), held the microphone up to her face and waited for the backing track to start. Soon enough, some electric guitar and bass started, followed by a steady drum beat. Kumatora then began to sing in a surprisingly deep and powerful voice.

**So what?!**

**I am a rock star!**

**I got my rock moves…**

**And I don't need youuuuu…**

**And guess what!**

**I'm havin' more fun,**

**And now that we're done,**

**I'm gonna show youuuuu…**

**Tonight!**

**I'M ALRIGHT**

**I'M JUST FINE**

**…**

**OH YEAH!**

**…**

**I DON'T NEED YA BABY**

**…**

**MMHMMM!**

_"__I'm pretty sure that's not how the song goes…"_ said Lucas telepathically..

_"__Agreed, let's just let her have it for now, she looked like she had fun…"_

Only a few of us clapped and it was very light, I'm surprised she could hear it to be honest.

She then bowed and said thank you about a million times. She stood at the side of the stage, waiting for the TV to pick the next singer…


	18. Chapter 18: Sing Your Heart Out! (pt 2)

We all stood, anticipating the next singer and praying that it wouldn't be one of us next, of course, it had to be someone…

"Claus… you're up dude!" yelled Kumatora.

"As a favour to my little bro, I'll keep it clean and keep it fun, let's do this!" yelled Claus as he psyched himself up and stepped up onto the stage. He placed a hand on his hip and put the microphone on a stand as he waited for the backing track to start… then, a loud and long trumpet began to sound followed by a drum beat and some weird, electronic bass of some kind, the intro to this song was tediously long. Claus began to sing in a low-pitched voice and he stayed on key very well, I'm not certain that this song was the best choice for his voice.

**Who's that sexy thang, **

**I see over there?**

**Oh!**

**That's me!**

**Standin' in the mirror.**

**What's that—**

"Boo!" I yelled playfully, my only goal here being to antagonise Claus, just a little bit. "Meghan Trainor sucks!"

Claus then stopped singing to shout back at me, he left his music playing in the background.

"SHUT YOUR STUPID FACE… YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF MY GORGEOUS VOICE!" yelled Claus.

"I happen to like Meghan Trainor!" said Lucas quietly to me.

"SEE, EVEN LUCAS LIKES HER, YOU GOT NO TASTE MAN!" yelled Claus back at me.

"KEEP SINGING!" yelled Kumatora

Claus then paused so he could sync up with his music, at the pre-chorus, he adopted a screamo voice for some reason, it actually instilled some fear into me.

**I THANK GAWD EVERY-DAY!**

**COZ I WOKE UP FEELIN' THIS WAY!**

**I CAN'T HELP LOVIN' MY-SELF**

**AND I DON'T NEED NO-BODY ELSE!**

**NAH-UH!**

**IF I WAS YOU**

**I'D WANNA BE ME TOO**

**WANNA BE ME TOO**

**I'D WANNA BE ME…**

**TOO!**

We all clapped for Claus who sent a fowl look my way, he then strutted off the stage, leaving the microphone on the stand.

"Gee Claus, I've never seen someone move their hips like that, it was captivating!" exclaimed Fuel astonished.

"Hehehe, thanks!" said Claus as Fuel kissed him on the cheek, causing the former's face to turn red.

"Ha-ha! Fuel loves Claus!" yelled Duster rudely.

"Keep talking and I'll – **Castrate you with a rusty carving knife **– have to punish you!" retorted Claus innocently and at the same time, maliciously.

Duster gulped, Kumatora then diverted our attention to the stage once more.

"And the next singer is… Paula! Go get 'em Girl!" yelled Kumatora.

"Yay!" yelled Paula as she pulled out a Ukulele and adjusted the mic stand.

"I didn't know that Paula can play the Uke!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, but, I have a question…" responded Lucas. "Where does she keep getting these items from?"

"Geez Lucas! That's like asking where I keep my bat and yo-yo, I just do!"

"Okay I guess"

"EVERYONE BE QUIET, SHE'S STARTING!" yelled Kumatora

From how high Paula could sing, I'd guess that she was a soprano, she began with her Ukulele, strumming it gently as it made a soft sound.

**Here I am again!**

**The same old situation!**

**Why does the shota thing**

**Have to be so complicated?**

**I should've played it cool!**

**Instead I made a fool!**

**Oh! The things I do!**

**Cause I'm young**

**And I'm dumb!**

**I do stupid things when it comes to love**

**But, even if I always end up cryin' **

**You can't blame a girl for shippin'!**

**(Nesscas for 'best OTP'!)**

Paula took a bow and strolled off stage, Kumatora, who related with the changed lyrics of the song, was applauding as if Paula had just won a Grammy. The rest of us, however, clapped minimally and tried to comprehend the words that Paula had just spewed out.

"Bee-utiful! Just amazing Paula! Gonna be hard to top that, hehehe!" yelled Kumatora.

"Thank ya, thank ya!" responded Paula. She then sat her Ukulele on the same chair that the microphone had been rested on.

Kumatora then pointed the dreaded remote at the TV screen and awaited the next singer…

"Duster! It's your turn!" yelled Kumatora in a cheerful, girly voice.

"Oh Yeah!" yelled Duster as he jumped onto the stage and took the mic from the stand, he didn't select a backing track, so I guess he was going to sing acapella like Nana. His voice was… well… like a horse threw up into a trombone… it was very… hard to listen to.

**YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT COMIN'—**

"NOPE!" shouted Kumatora. "Duster! WE HAVE KIDS HERE!"

"You let Nana sing profanity!" retorted Duster.

"She rapped too fast for me to interject… either sing a different song or get off the stage!"

"Aww!"

Duster, looking as depressed as ever, stepped down from the stage and laid down on the grass covered ground. He literally had no hope in his eyes. Kumatora broke him!

Kumatora, seemingly ignoring the man she had broken, began to select the next singer…

"Okay Fuel! It's your turn, keep it child friendly!"

"I am a child!" responded Fuel

"Even better then!"

Fuel stepped up to the stage and selected his backing track for his song. He then put the mic on the stand and pointed at Claus.

"This one's for you!"

Claus blushed in response.

The backing track started to play, a heavy drum beat played with an electric guitar and various other instruments that blended together well. I then realised that I knew this song. Fuel began to sing in a really nice voice that stayed on key and was very steady, that is until the high-notes, in which case, Fuel's voice cracks in a very noticeable way.

**MY SONGS KNOW **

**WHAT YOU DID**

**IN THE DAR-AR-ARK!**

**SO LIGHT 'EM UP, UP, UP!**

**LIGHT 'EM UP, UP, UP!**

**LIGHT 'EM UP, UP, UP**

**I'M ON FI-RE!**

**SO LIGHT 'EM UP, UP, UP!**

**LIGHT 'EM UP, UP, UP!**

**LIGHT 'EM UP, UP, UP**

**I'M ON FI-RE!**

"UH! FUEL! YOU KNOW ME SO WELL!" yelled Claus in praise of Fuel's singing.

"YOU BETCHA! I can take you back to your Emo days any time you like!" responded Fuel.

"Hahahahaha, what do ya mean, Emo days? I never had an Emo phase… hahahahaha!"

"Oh yeah! You're a closeted Emo, like you are a closeted hom—"

"HOME BUILDER! ON MINECRAFT! YEP! THAT IS WHAT HE WAS GOING TO SAY!"

We all looked in Claus's direction. By shouting that out, he drew more attention to himself. To be completely honest, I don't think anyone was paying any attention to begin with.

The realisation that it was just me and Lucas left then set in, there was a fifty-fifty chance that I'd have to sing and the very thought of it filled me with a tremendous amount of fear… I awaited to hear who had to sing next…

"Okay… our next singer is…" yelled Kumatora as she pressed the buttons on the remote.

…

…

…

…

"Lucas! Come on kiddo! You got this!"

"Um… okay then…" responded Lucas as he reluctantly climbed onto the stage and stood behind the mic stand. I breathed a sigh of relief as I didn't have to sing, but then I realised, not only was I next, but I was also last!

Lucas then realised he had forgotten something and dashed inside his house. From out here, it sounded like Lucas was rummaging through a cupboard to find something, some loud crashing could be heard. Soon after, Lucas re-emerged with an acoustic guitar in his hand. He then stepped back onto the stage, tuned the guitar and began to sing. Lucas's voice was so beautiful, and he could sing so high for a male. I'd guess he was a male soprano or a falsetto. I got teary eyed listening to him sing a song that felt like he chose it for me.

**Sunrise with you on my chest,**

**No blinds in the place that I live.**

**Day-break, open your eyes**

**Cause this was only meant to be for one night, still, **

**We're changing our minds here, **

**Be yours, be mine dear.**

**So close, with you on my lips,**

**Touch noses, feelin' your breath**

**Push your heart and pull away, yeah,**

**Be my summer in a winter day, love**

**I can't see one thing wrong, between the both of us.**

**Be mine, be mine, yeah!**

**Any time, any time.**

**Oooooooooo,**

**You know I've been alone for quite a while,**

**Haven't I?**

**I thought I knew it all…**

**Found love, but, I was wrong.**

**More times than enough…**

**But since you came along…**

**I'm thinkin' baby you,**

**Are bringin' out a different kinda me.**

**There's no safety net that's underneath.**

**I'm free**

**Fallin' all in you.**

**You fell for men who weren't how they appear**

**Trapped up on a tight rope, now were here**

**I'm free**

**Fallin' all in**

**You-oo!**

**Every time I see you, baby**

**I get lost**

**If I'm dreamin' baby, **

**Please don't wake me up**

**Every night I'm with you,**

**I fall more in love.**

**Now I'm layin' by your side**

**Everything feels right, **

**Since you came along…**

***guitar strum***

I couldn't even find the words to describe how amazing Lucas sounded. I quickly wiped away my tears from my face, and then I clapped. It was fair to say that Lucas's performance was the best so far. I was a little bit annoyed that Lucas had set the bar so high for my performance—oh dear! I don't even know what I'm going to sing! I'm going to suck so much, he's gonna think that I don't feel the same if I don't sing a song that conveys the same emotion… what am I gonna do?

Everyone clapped fiercely and applauded the blushing blonde who then ran off stage and stood by my side, clutching the guitar in his hand.

"You sounded amazing! Where'd you learn to sing like that?!" I exclaimed.

Lucas blushed, it seems singing really well and receiving praise for it had overwhelmed him. He then told me a story of how he, Claus and Hinawa would sit in on rainy nights, while their dad would be out, tending to the sheep. They'd watch musicals and Hinawa would get the boys to sing along. It seems that Lucas always wanted to sing just like his mother. He definitely did her voice justice. She would be… no… she is proud.

Kumatora then looked at me and signalled that it was my turn to sing and I still hadn't picked a song, then I had an idea… I know of a singer that's good at ballads. I'll sing one of his songs.

I then reluctantly stumbled onto the stage and selected the backing track that I was going to use, a ten second timer began to count down to the start of the song. Soon, a slow synthesiser began to play, followed by a slow acoustic guitar.

**I found a love…**

**For me**

**Darling just dive right in**

**And follow my lead.**

**Oh! I found a guy!**

**Beautiful and sweet**

**I never knew you were the someone**

**Waiting for me.**

**Cause we were just kids when we fell in love**

**Not knowing what it was**

**I will not give you up this ti-i-ime.**

**Darling just kiss me slow**

**Your heart is all I own**

**And in your eyes, you're holding mi-i-ine**

**Baby… I'm**

**Dancing in the dark!**

**With you between my arms!**

**Barefoot on the grass!**

**Listening to our favourite song!**

**When you said you looked a mess, **

**I whispered underneath my breath, but,**

**You heard it**

**'****darling, you look perfect'**

**Tonight**

***slow guitar strum***

As I finished singing, I opened my eyes to find the entire group staring at me in shock… was I that bad?


	19. Chapter 19: Singing together!

The entire group wouldn't stop staring, as a natural result, I assumed I sounded hideous. I then darted off stage as quickly as I could and converged with the group. Lucas looked at me unlike anyway he had done before. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Usually, Lucas's eyes told a story of a thousand words. But these eyes looking back at me, said nothing.

"Ness…" said Lucas as his eyes began to fill with tears.

"what… did I sound THAT bad?!" I asked.

"Ness… your voice was beautiful!" exclaimed Lucas emotionally.

I giggled and rubbed the back of my head. Kumatora stepped up with her microphone once again and started to address the group, giving details of the next round.

"Okay guys! Good job, mostly good singing!" exclaimed Kumatora. "Now we move onto the duets round… Oh! Baby this is gonna be so much fun!"

"How does it work?" asked Nana.

"Each team will be randomly assigned a team number and that team will have to pick a song for the team they were given. The song you choose doesn't have to be a song that is especially for a duet. It can be any song!"

Everyone appeared to be following the plan clearly.

"Alright, here are your numbers… since team 5 left…"

Team 1: team 4

Team 2: team 3

Team 3: team 1

Team 4: team 2

"Alright everyone, split off and decide what you'll make the other team sing…" commanded Kumatora.

As per her instruction, we branched off and began to decide what we'd make the other team sing.

"Since their team has Nana on it, lets pick a short song, yeah?" asked Lucas.

"Good idea!" I responded.

"Oh! How about summer lovin'?" asked Lucas. "It isn't too long, and it is quite gentle so Duster might not sound awful!"

"Yes, that's perfect… now we need to prepare ourselves for whatever they choose for us."

Kumatora and Paula were beside the stage, discussing what song that they were going to make me and Lucas sing.

"It HAS to be something really cute… something that will imply that they're together!" cried Paula.

"But, nothing dirty!" responded Kumatora. "Like I said long ago, they're just kids!"

"OOH! What about 'Marvin Gaye'?" asked Paula.

"But, it's dirty… DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY!"

"well there are never any actual dirty words in it, so what's the problem?!"

"Good point!" responded Kumatora. "Marvin Gaye it is!"

"Yay!" cried Paula.

"WHY DO YOU INSIST ON THAT MOTHER-F***ING SONG!?" Asked Claus frustratedly.

"BECAUSE IT IS A GOOD SONG AND YOU KNOW IT!" replied Fuel.

"IT'S NOT EMO!" cried Claus.

"YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO STAY A CLOSETTED EMO!"

"BUT YOU PICKED AN EMO SONG… I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THE GIRLS SING 'I LOVE IT' BECAUSE THAT SONG IS STUPID!"

"Well it's too late, I already put it in the thing!" responded Fuel in a snarky way.

"YOU ADORABLE BASTARD!"

"YOU CUTIE CARROT TOP!"

"GET YOUR CUTE LITTLE BUTT OVER HERE AND KISS ME!"

"O K A Y!"

Fuel began to edge closer to Claus and went in for a kiss. That was until Paula and Kumatora perked up from the wall…

"GAH!" cried Claus and Fuel simultaneously.

"Don't mind us… just go back to your sweet little moment…" cried Kumatora

Claus and Fuel merely stared back at the two fujoshies with blank, dull and uncomprehending expressions on their faces… their only actions being blinking.

"Kumie, their not going back to their moment…" cried Paula.

"I think we ruined it!" sobbed Kumatora as she covered her eyes and let the tears run.

"yEaH! YoU dId!" responded Claus in an annoyed tone. Claus was not a boy of emotions and all of that hippy-dippy, lovey-dovey felling crap. He did, however, value both the small moments with the people he loved and his privacy. Claus believed the only _fair _thing to do was to seek revenge upon the girls who had ruined their moment. From this moment forth, Claus began to plot his evil plan…

While Claus, Fuel, Kumatora and Paula were confronting one another, Duster and Nana were thinking about the song that they would make Claus and Fuel sing together on stage.

"Well I think we need a woman-power song, something to make everyone get in the mood to dance with… Oh my gawd! Do you think they'd let me play the piano in the background? Oh I hope so, it'd be so cool, and I'd get to perform more than everyone else, not that I'm an attention seeker or anything… Oh my gawd! I know so many woman-power songs! EEK! A BUG! SPLAT IT DUSTER! SPLAT IT!" spewed Nana.

_"__Does she ever stop talking? I'm actually going deaf I swear!" _Duster thought to himself as he took off his shoe and proceeded to splat the bug with it.

"AH! Thank you Duster!" sighed Nana with relief. "Oh! How about a Bon Jovi song instead? I'll bet that Claus and Fuel are better with lower notes so maybe it should be a song sung by men?" around this time, Duster inhaled as if he was about to speak, but was soon cut off… because Nana DOES NOT STOP SPEAKING!

"LIVIN' ON A PRAYER IT IS!" cried Nana as she typed away into the TV.

Now that all of the songs had been chosen, the eight membered group converged in the front garden of Lucas's house once more. We were all ready to get this over with.

_For this part of the chapter, when each group sings, one person's lyrics will be given one colour and the other will be given another e.g. Lucas = red and Ness = blue._

"Okay! Now that we have picked all the songs, we'll start the singing!" said Kumatora with a mic in her hand as she stood atop the stage.

She then pressed the remote once again and started the selection process for the first duet.

"Okay… Claus and Fuel! You're up!" said Kumatora excitedly.

Claus and Fuel then stepped up to the stage and placed a mic on one stand. It seems that they wish to sing into the same microphone. This only made Kumatora and Paula all the more excited for their performance. Fuel then put his arm around Claus's shoulder and turned around, they were huddled together like they were trying to come up with a plan of some kind.

"Claus, I have an idea to make this performance spectacular!"

"Yeah? Let's hear it!"

From bellow the stage, we could hear the slight murmuring of a discussion going on atop the stage. They then turned around and got ready to sing.

_Claus_

_Fuel_

The music then began to time in, for some reason, it started from the pre-chorus of the song, their harmony they created was melodic… also, it sounded rather frightening and angry.

**SAID WE GOTTA HOLD ON**

**TO WHAT WE GOT.**

**IT DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE **

**IF WE MAKE IT OR NOT.**

**WE GOT EACH OTHER**

**AND THAT'S A LOT FOR US**

**SO GIVE IT A SHOT!**

**WOAH!**

**WE'RE HALF WAY THE-RE**

**WOAH-OH!**

**LINCOLN AND A BEAR!**

**TAKE MY HAND**

**WE'LL MAKE IT, I SWEAR!**

**WOAH-OH**

**LIPSTSICK ON A PEAR!**

**SWINGIN' ON A CHAIR!**

We all couldn't stop laughing, it was an amazing performance! I was pretty sure, however, that they had ripped that off from the internet, but hey, it was funny.

"*giggle, giggle* thank you, that was brilliant! *giggle*" said Kumatora as she wiped the tears of laughter away from her eyes.

Everyone soon clapped and awarded the duo their well-earned praise.

"Okay then, the next duet will be…" said Kumatora as she pressed the buttons on the remote once more. "Nana and Duster!"

"Yay!" cried Nana as she stepped up to the stage. "Come on! Dusty!"

"Please don't call me that…" mumbled Duster as he scraped his feet along the ground before stepping onto the stage.

A few seconds had passed since Nana and Duster took their places on the stage and the music started to play. A soft piano with a double bass started to play and Nana tapped her foot along.

_Nana_

_Duster_

**SUMMER LOVIN'**

**HAD ME A BLAST**

**SUMMER LOVIN'**

**HAPPENS SO FAST.**

**I MET A GIRL,**

**CRAZY FOR ME-E**

**I MET A BOY WHOS AS CUTE AS CAN BE**

At this time, Nana pushed Duster off of the stage and kept on singing every single line by herself. Duster, who was laying flat on his face, simply shrugged it off and let her continue without interruption.

**SUMMER DAYS KEEP DRIFTING AWAY**

**OH! HOW I LOVE THEM SUMMER NIGHTS!**

We all stared on in horror of how Nana had stolen the show like that. In return of such, we all forced a smile and clapped lightly.

In response, Nana took a curtsy and Duster poked his head up and waved slightly. The music finished and Nana stepped down from the stage, Duster merely stood up and converged with the group.

Nana, seeming as pleased with herself as ever, walked up to Duster and began to chat with him.

"Hey Dusty! Why didn't you get back up on stage?" asked Nana innocently.

"BECAUSE YOU PUSHED ME OFF THE MOTHER-F***ING STAGE SO YOU COULD HOG THE LIME-LIGHT!" retorted Duster angrily. Kumatora then stepped in and forcibly placed her hands-on Duster's shoulders and pulled him away from Nana so he didn't say anything he'd regret.

"Duster, bruh! Chill out man!" said Kumatora as she demonstrated 'chilling out' by breathing in slowly and then out again, slowly.

"Yeah, okay… I'm fine… thanks!" said Duster as he repeated her breathing process.

"Okay, cool, I'm gonna go see who's next!" said Kumatora as she pointed the remote at the screen and waited for the results of the pick. "Hey Paula! It's our turn, come on up girl!"

"Yes!" yelled Paula as she began to make her way towards the stage. "Kumie! Girl! We need to make this song about shippin'!"

"Hella yeah!"

Paula grabbed a second microphone and stood it next to Kumatora's. The music began to play, and the girls began to sing.

_Kumatora_

_Paula_

**WE DON'T CARE!**

**WE SHIP IT!**

"NOPE! THAT'S ENOUGH!" yelled Duster almost as if he was making a rhetorical point referring to what had happened before when Duster began to sing.

"GRRR!" growled Kumatora angrily. "HOW DARE YOU INTERUPT THE SHOTA WHEN WE'RE SINGING?!"

"YOU DID IT TO ME!" retorted Duster. "IT'S CALLED KARMA, BIATCH!"

"YOU WANNA GO?! I WILL TAKE YOU DOWN AND MAKE YOU BEG FOR DEATH!"

"I'LL KICK YOU WITH MY PEG LEG!"

"I'LL BURN YOUR INSIDES!"

"I'LL—"

"BOTH OF YOU! SHUT THE F**K UP!" shouted Paula as their backing track faded away. "Because of your arguing, our song is over! Stop your petty bickering!"

Kumatora sighed and followed Paula's wise instructions. They then stepped off the stage with small tears forming in their eyes. Kumatora then looked at Lucas and I and signalled for us to go on stage, it was our turn. Kumatora then sat down on the only chair (after kicking Nana off of it) and inexplicably pulled out a bag of cookies. She then poured them into her mouth like they were a liquid and swallowed them without chewing. She then buried her head in her hands.

Lucas and I stepped up to the stage with a little bit of hesitation. I didn't know the song we were going to sing so my fear was understandable, given that the song was chosen by the fujoshies, Lucas looked just as, if not, more scared of what was about to transpire. The music began to play on cue and a ten-second timer chimed us in at the right moment.

_Lucas _

_Ness_

**LET'S MARVIN GAYE AND GET IT ON!**

**YOU GOT THAT HEALING THAT I WANT,**

**JUST LIKE THEY SAY IT IN THE SONGS,**

**UNTIL THE DAWN! **

**LETS MARVIN GAYE AND GET IT ON!**

**WE GOT THIS KING-SIZE TO OURSELVES.**

**DON'T HAVE TO SHARE WITH NO-ONE ELSE**

**DON'T KEEP YOUR SECRETS TO YOURSE-E-ELF**

**IT'S KARMA SUTRA SHOW AND TE-ELL, YEAH!**

**WOAH!**

**THERE'S LOVIN' IN YOUR EYES**

**THAT PULLS ME CLOSER**

**IT'S SO SUBTLE**

**I'M IN TROUBLE**

**BUT, I'D LOVE TO BE IN TROUBLE WITH YOU!**

**LETS MARVIN GAYE GET IT O-O-ON**

**YOU GOT THAT HEALING THAT I WANT!**

**LIKE THEY SAY IT IN THE SO-O-ONGS**

**UNTIL THE DAWN!**

**LETS MARVIN GAYE GET IT ON!**

**YOU GOT TO GIVE IT UP TO ME-E-E**

**I'M SCREAMING MERCY, MERCY PLE-EASE**

**LIKE THEY SAY IT IN THE SO-ONGS**

**UNTIL THE DAWN!**

**LETS MARVIN GAYE GET IT ON**

**WO-O-OAH!**

**LIKE THEY SAY IT IN THE SONGS**

**UNTIL THE DAWN!**

**LETS MARVIN GAYE.**

**GET IT O-ON!**

**OOH!**

Just as we sung our last note, Lucas had edged closer. He then grabbed me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed me in front of everyone. As you could imagine, Paula and Kumatora lost their minds and were crying and cheering and dying all at the same time. This was all I had wanted for so long, to finally be with Lucas. My heart was pounding out of my chest and the sweat running from my head was so nasty, Lucas didn't seem to mind, our lips remained together for about ten seconds, it was both the longest and best ten seconds of my entire life. Lucas then pulled away and so our lips had to separate which filled me with a well of sadness.

"I… I'm sorry…" mumbled Lucas after pulling away. "It was just… us singing this song… and us not wanting to pretend—"

"Lucas! Its alright!" I added.

"It is?"

"Yeah… its good, I liked it…"

"Only good?" responded Lucas with a grin on his face. It appears that kissing me was something that Lucas had wanted for a long time too, it made me happy to think that my lips could hold the secret to Lucas experiencing happiness.

"OH MY F***ING GAWD! NESSCAS SAILED! NESSCAS SAILED!" yelled Kumatora at the top of her lungs.

"I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY IN ALL MY LIFE AND I'VE MET ALL OF THE SPICE GIRLS!" squealed Paula loudly. "IT SAILED! IT F***ING SAILED!"

Lucas face palmed as he quickly left the stage, I soon followed where we were greeted by Paula and Kumatora fussing and yelling about something called sailing, did they mean the water sport?

The sun set that night and the events had left my throat feeling a little but sore. Lucas soon picked up on this as my voice sounded deeper and croakier than usual, I think singing so much had made me contract an illness of some kind.

Lucas seemed rather concerned about me from this point onward. Poo and Jeff went back to the Yado Inn to stay the night, Nana went back to her house and Duster went to stay with old man Wess who we had heard so little about but was Duster's father. Wess was well-known throughout the village as the man who calls his son a moron all the time. The only people who were left in Lucas's house was Kumatora, Paula, Claus, Fuel, Lucas and me with few beds to spare.

Claus had been sleeping in his and Lucas's parent's bed and since it is a double bed, Claus invited Fuel to share said Bed for the night, although the two would never actually sleep. The duo would later spend the night watching movies, playing board games, gossiping and eating raw cookie dough for some reason. Paula and Kumatora were given the couch to sleep on that night, the couch was large and had plenty of room for the both of them, yet they didn't sleep the entire night, rather they dished about the fact that me and Lucas shared a kiss on stage. This would later lead to them spying on Lucas and me from a tree that grew from the cliffside and stretched up to stand as tall of the window of Lucas's bedroom. Lucas and I, however, would once again spend the night in the same bed, only this time, Lucas thought it not necessary to position a pillow at the other end of the bed.

"Do you… want to sleep at my end of the bed?" asked Lucas nervously.

"Sure!" I responded easing his nervous demeaner.

The fact that I had an opportunity to sleep right next to Lucas made me feel really happy and at the same time, really nervous. I had never slept face to face with a boy before, sure, I had slept in the same bed as another boy like in previous nights here with Lucas. I didn't want to over-think anything, after all, this would only be sleep, nothing more was going to take place tonight other than the loud sound of a tree branch snapping during the night, I needn't inform you of who the culprits were, I'm sure.

Lucas and I climbed into the bed, our heads resting on the same soft pillow, just inches apart. I could feel his warm breath on my chin and I'm sure he could feel the same from me. Being so close to him felt a little bit strange, yeah, we had hugged and even kissed, but simply lying together felt strange, maybe it's because I could feel his heart beat vibrate throughout the bed sheets.

Sleep would not come easy to the two of us tonight, Lucas especially…


	20. Chapter 20: Facing Your Demons

_This part of the story is told from Lucas's point of view._

Ness had fallen asleep just moments before me, yet he'd still not feel rejuvenated upon his awakening. Ness didn't know, but, he was about to engage in a night of heated battle and some long fights to be had.

I had drifted off into sleep around midnight time, little did I know that the six little hours of sleep that I would squeeze out of this night would seem to last an eternity.

I found myself in a very strange place, the ground was marsh-like and had a soft yet firm feeling to it, surrounding me were tall and thick trees, all of which left their roots exposed out of the ground. To my side were some very familiar purple mushrooms all gathered in a clump, I believed I was in the place known only as Tanetane island. It was the only place where these purple mushrooms could be found and the only place where my memory of it was sketchy. Last time I was here, Me and the others ate those mushrooms to survive and replenish our hunger.

I was all alone for a good few minutes until a bunch of chimeras appeared, these were not the chimeras that we had previously ran into on Tanetane, rather they were a combination of all the chimeras we had seen along the way, flying mice, ostrelephant, the dolphin-kangaroo thing, a mech-lion and tons others. They didn't seem too menacing to begin with, that was until the flying mouse glided forward a little bit.

"Daddies gonna beat ya! Daddies gonna beat ya!" repeated the mouse ominously. "Daddies gonna beat ya, daddies gonna beat ya! Daddies gonna beat ya!"

The mouse kept repeating those cryptic words for a while. The ground then began to tremor lightly, slowly increasing in power as time went on, soon enough, I could hear heavy footsteps pounding against the ground. I turned around and to my horror, I saw a gargantuan stone statue that was shaped just like Porky! It was the King Porky Statue from New Pork City, I had nightmares featuring this very same statue many times, I had never seen it in person but had seen many photos of it online. I remember Giegue told us that me and my friends were originally supposed to go to New Pork City to confront Porky, yet we found him in thunder tower? I wonder if that was by the design of Giegue.

I ran as fast as I could with the statue trailing closely behind, stomping on the ground causing mini tremors as it did so. I screamed and screamed for help, but it was as if no sound escaped my lips. As I ran, my foot got caught under an exposed tree root and I tripped. My foot remained trapped there as the Porky King statue edged closer and closer. Tears began to run from my eyes as I simply curled up into a ball and waited to be crushed. I thought to myself, at least it will be quick.

"PK FLASH!" yelled an unknown, yet familiar voice.

A powerful ball of green tinted light appeared from nowhere and was absorbed into the Porky King statue. The statue was then completely shattered, and its jagged stone fragments spread all across the ground.

From the sky descended a well-known figure who then extended a hand and pulled me up and somehow loosened my foot from the grip of the root.

"Fancy meeting you here!" remarked Ness jokingly.

"Ness! Are you really here or are you part of my dream?" I asked nervously.

"I'm really here!" assured Ness. "What is this place?"

"This is Tanetane island! Me, Kumatora and Duster were washed up here once!"

"Oh! Okay! All I remember about it is that it was where you and the others ate those weird mushrooms."

I nodded in agreement and Ness and I began to run and hide, there weren't many places to hide, but there was Myxolydia's seashell house at the top of the hill. Should we need to take cover, we know it's there.

I wondered and postulated the reasons why all these chimeras could be seen here in my dream and why the King Porky statue was chasing me, but nothing came to mind. I tried to shrug it off as much as I could, but it still lingered in my mind.

We camped around at the bottom of the mountain where we waited for whatever dastardly thing came to attack us next, we waited for a while with no interruptions, so we talked and talked and talked.

"So? How are you here?" I asked Ness curiously.

He shrugged and then grinned. "I'd guess that its because of our psychic bond. We must be telepathically joined together or something."

"You must be reading my mind or something?" I added.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Ness. "Anyways, what are all these weird creatures, they look like someone took two creatures and just sewed them together?"

"Oh! These are some of the different chimeras that the Pigmask army created for Porky's amusement."

"What's a chimera?" asked Ness confusedly.

"An animal that has been taken apart and put back together with another animal." I responded coldly.

"Oh right!" said Ness as everything started to make sense. He then looked around, examining each monster that he could see from a distance as we lurked behind a dense formation of twirled up trees. He looked somewhat disgusted and saddened by the creatures that lay before his eyes. This I understood. I believed that the Pigmasks had absolutely no right to mess with mother nature in such a way. The world can rest assured that the face of evil had finally been wiped off the face of the Earth. Sadly, many of the pre-created chimeras still roamed the Nowhere islands, searching for… something?

The time flew by quickly and yet, it seemed that we had only spent roughly 30 minutes here in real-time. Soon enough, the distant and heavy footsteps of yet another hostile creature could be heard. This caused me and Ness to become rather alarmed, because of such, we began to creep up the gentle slope towards the top of the mountain. We were walking backwards so we could keep an eye on where we thought the stomping footsteps were originating from. The footsteps stopped for some unknown reason, all that could be heard was the sound of what I'd liken to a leaky tap with large drops of water slowly dripping from it.

"Hey Lucas? What's that dripping sound?" asked Ness nervously.

"I don't know… it sounds like a leaky tap?" I responded.

As we edged closer to the steep wall of the mountainside, we began to feel as though something was watching us intensely… the strange dripping sound grew louder and louder. Amongst the dripping was the sound of something growling lightly.

Standing atop this tall natural forming wall was a Mecha-drago, the same one my father went up against in his search for Claus. It bent down in attempt to gobble us up, that was until a large drop of it's saliva fell from the beast's mouth and landed on the back of Ness's neck and slid down his shirt.

"EWIE! WHAT THE HECK IS THA—"

Ness then looked up at the cybernetic beast that looked back at him. Terror and fear began to fill Ness's eyes as his heart began to pound and he was rendered speechless.

"What is it—"

The same look overcame my own two eyes and my breathing became heavy. I let a high-pitched scream escape my lips.

"**_GRRROOOAAARRR!_**" roared the mighty mechanical beast as it prepared to jump down to our level. Ness and I ran back as quickly as we could as the Mecha-Drago fell where we stood.

"Lucas? What do we do?" asked Ness with a catch in his throat.

"Um… Um… We could… err… use our PSI?"

"Will it work?"

"I don't know, let's just try it!"

Ness jumped back a little and began to charge the PSI all around his body, he then released it by making an 'air guitar' gesture. "PSI Rockin' Ω!" yelled Ness as a powerful multi-coloured shockwave pulsated from his fingers.

I simultaneously began to cup my hands together and a ball of white light started to charge in my hands, I then released a large shockwave of hexagonal white light that engulfed the drago. The Drago then roared in pain and then completely disappeared leaving only its scent.

"w… where'd it go?" asked Ness nervously.

"Why're you asking me? I don't know!" I responded.

"It's _your_ dream!"

"So?"

Before Ness could argue back, a Pigmask Colonel appeared, oinked and armed his weapon.

"Oi! You two! Stop right there!" yelled the Colonel.

"…!"

The Colonel then prepared to fire his weapon, the white gun in his hand began to hum as it charged. As the laser discharged from the barrel, Ness and I jumped out of the way just in time. I landed next to a tree on the soft dirt, I then fell over and landed on my back. Ness, on the other hand, landed in an unstable patch of dirt. The extra pressure applied to that patch of the ground caused Ness to fall down the side of the mountain letting out a high-pitched yelp as he did so.

"NESS!" I yelled in fear of the worst, I then reassured myself with the knowledge that this was just a dream, so nothing actually happened to Ness thankfully. I then picked up a stick and lobbed it at the Pigmask Colonel and he then disappeared just like the mecha-drago.

I then desperately searched the immediate vicinity for a sign of Ness, my search was all in vein. Tears filled my eyes as I hid my face in my hands. If you die in a dream, do you die in real-life?

Unfortunately, I had no time to postulate that very question as mech-lion was approaching me very quickly. I used a PK Flash attack so I could blind it and make a getaway. My attack, having used a lot of energy, seemed to be ineffective against the mech-lion. It then roared and swung one of its mechanical tentacles in my direction, I took the hit in the side of the stomach and screamed a little as I felt the pain run all over me. The pain felt so real and yet it seemed that I had actually taken no damage. You could say my HP is still full. I then realised that because this was a dream, the events that take place in it are just simulations, they're not real. This epiphany took away my fear and allowed me to attack with a clear head, I charged a ball of white light and let it wash over the mech-lion yelling PK Love as I did so.

The Mech-lion disappeared in a small and anti-climactic explosion leaving its charred and sparking mechanical body lying lifeless on the dark-turquoise coloured grass. It twitched a couple times which really freaked me out.

I dashed away from the battlefield as quickly as my little legs could carry me and took shelter in a little cave thing. Just as I crouched down and breathed a sigh of relief, the skies opened up and let a ferocious downpour which was a shame as I was enjoying the sunny skies. The real world was lacking in such after Giegue cursed the world or something, somehow, in the real world, the plants still grew in a lovely and vibrant green and hadn't died from a lack of sunlight. As Leder told us, the Nowhere islands is the only safe place left in the world after it was destroyed, I sure as hell wasn't going to let Giegue destroy it, after all, I didn't let the Pigmasks.

The rain continued to batter this dream state world for what seemed like the next hour or so. What did I do to pass the time? I picked up a stick and drew in the moist dirt of course. I did get a little bit bored though after a while, I wanted to see if I could find Ness somewhere out there, but I didn't want to get my fabulous quiff wet so I continued to wait for as long as I could, in the end, I had only wasted my time.

The rain finally dissipated, and I crept out of the cave, I was sure to observe my surroundings and checked dozens of times that no Chimeras were plotting to sneak up on me. The area seemed to be clear and free of chimeras, so I ran for it.

It seemed as if the path I was sprinting on was especially designed for me as the trees did not block my way at all and there was clearly a dirt marked path beneath my feet. I soon stopped dead in my tracks as I caught a glimpse of a male figure standing atop a hill. From here, it seemed to be Ness! I then sprinted ever faster and closed the distance between me and him. I now stood only metres away from him.

"Ness!" I called out.

He clenched his fist and turned around with an angry expression on his face.

"_Hello Lucas…" _returned Ness as I finally caught a glimpse of his face. His eyes were glowing a strong and evil-looking red light which heavily resembled the glow of my eyes back during the fight with Porky when I attacked everyone.

"It… isn't you… is it?" I questioningly stated as his stare grew intense with evil intent.

Ness grinned evilly.

"It isn't you…" I added trying to fill this awkward space in the conversation.

"Would you like a tour?" sounded Ness in a bizarrely low-pitched voice.

"Tour?"

"Indeed… the tour straight to hell… because I'll be killing you… with my own two diabolical hands which are comprised of many sinister fingers which I will use to fiendishly rip you—"

"Yeah! I get it, you're evil! Can I fight you yet?" I interjected frustratedly.

"I don't see why not…" responded Ness innocently. He whipped out his baseball bat and tapped it on his shoulder in the very same fashion as his not-so evil counterpart. "Come at me then!"

My eyes grew a little angry as I clicked my fingers and released a burst of PSI energy.

I knew he was evil but the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt Ness. The very though of doing so chilled me to my very core. If a beating didn't snap Ness out of his evil mindset, would I have to kill the dream state version of him?

I cringed out loud after that thought had entered my mind as I realised Ness had begun to charge towards me, I thought fast and concentrated some PSI energy towards my feet and expelled it out which then propelled me through the air and over Ness's head. This little trick would surely come in handy in real life. I landed where the evil Ness had previously stood. Since I was unsure if this was the real Ness who lays beside me in my bed or a figment of my imagination, I avoided physical attacks for the time being. I bent down towards the ground and concentrated some PSI into my hands. After it had charged up and changed into a bright green colour, I threw up my hands and let it explode, blinding evil Ness in the process.

He covered his eyes in pain as he shot little balls of purple PSI light my way, of course, they all missed given that he wasn't aiming at all. I took this opportunity to generate a shield around myself which would help protect me from any contact attacks that he had planned. My body flashed a light blue until small rhombus shapes formed a bubble around me.

Evil Ness looked up making it clear that the effects of my PK Flash had worn off.

I could see a small build up of PSI energy forming in an aura around him. It then began to be concentrated around his hands. I instantly knew what move this was, it was Ness's PSI rockin', I began to set up a PSI counter out of sheer fear of this attacks destructiveness. Luckily my counter was successful.

A small wall of purple PSI energy formed around me causing the attack to ricochet back onto Evil Ness who was then thrusted backwards by his own attack. He landed on his side and let out an "ugh!" as his head hit the ground.

My mind began to race with the thought that I had hurt Ness, but I then comforted myself with the thought that it might not be him at all. He stood up and brushed the dirt off of his body and pulled an angry expression at me, as time went on, his angry stare grew more and more intense causing me to gulp out of anxiety.

I had no choice, I had to attack him somehow, I could feel my energy surplus draining and if I continued to use counters and PK Flashes, I would soon pass out from exhaustion. I picked up a stick from the ground and lobbed it towards Evil Ness, it made a slight 'thok' sound as it knocked against his forehead.

A red lump soon grew from where the stick had hit his head, he then picked up the same stick and threw it angrily at me… he missed.

The fact that Evil Ness still hadn't landed a hit after all this time reassured me as to the thought that this was only a figment of my imagination. My only reasoning for this, however, was that I had seen Ness in battle, and he was no where near this pathetic. At least 80% of his attacks hit his opponent not to mention that he took on the Pigmasks and The Masked Man as well as Giegue for a short moment. Ness was one tough cookie. He would have incapacitated me by now, by this point, I was only waiting for Ness to swoop in and save me, but that thought left my mind after I had resolved this internal struggle as to whether this was the real Ness. I was finally ready to attack him.

I mustered up the last of my courage and dashed into Ness.

My attack was much weaker than I had expected, he barely fell back an inch. He used this as an opportunity to 'bitch slap' me across the face.

I felt the pain run across my face as it started to burn and turned red. I then heard a weird sound of what I could only describe as a pot boiling, as I looked up, I saw that the source of this sound was Evil Ness charging his PSI Rockin' once more. Instead of trying to block it or get away, I closed my eyes and braced myself. It was strange. I knew this was all a dream and yet I still feared that I would lose my life in this fight.

Out of nowhere, a large rock was lobbed at Evil Ness, knocking him out as it hit the side of his head.

I opened my eyes to find the real Ness extending his hand to help me up, I stood up weakly and brushed myself off.

"thank you…" I mumbled to Ness.

"Anything for you!" he responded. "so who's this geezer?"

"an evil version of you…" I responded questioningly, how could Ness not see the resemblance?

"Can't be!" said Ness arrogantly. "He looks nothing like me!" he giggled.

"… Oh! You're serious?"

"Yeah! You thought this guy looks like me?"

"…"

"pffft!"

We scurried off as quickly as our legs could carry us and found ourselves in an open clearing that was free of trees and marsh-land. We sat down and began conversing about what each of us had been through since we were separated.

"Oh! I forgot to mention…" said Ness excitedly. "its nearly dawn in the real world, or at least it was when I temporally woke up… you should wake up soon!" he added trying to cheer me up about this predicament.

"Oh that's good… I'm getting a little bored of running around here—"

From the horizon emerged a tall and skinny figure who was clutching a stick with one hand and what appeared to be a home-made knife with the other. This knife was a short stick with a large fang tied to it with some kind of string. The figure was dressed mainly in brown from what I could tell, he had brown trousers, a brown waistcoat and a brown hat so it was fair to say. As he grew closer and closer, I recognised him to be my dad.

"Lucas?... who is that?" asked Ness nervously.

"Its… my dad?"

Finally, Flint had approached us enough so that I could say for certain that it was him, as always, I couldn't see his face, but it was definitely him.

"hello…" said Flint coldly.

"D… Dad?"

"Good… you know who I am… do you know?"

"Do I know what?" I questioned.

"That Daddies gonna beat ya!"

A gust of wind blew in from nowhere and knocked Flint's hat off revealing that his eyes were glowing the same shade of red as evil Ness's. I knew this would be a tough fight… I also knew that it wasn't him so that made it easier, I guess.

Suddenly, Ness went in to attack but stopped dead in his tracks, I couldn't help but wonder what was wrong.

"Ness? What's wrong?!" I yelled concernedly.

"I… I can't… m… move!" he responded weakly in a struggle.

Flint walked over to Ness's frozen body and held the knife up to Ness's chest.

"You're not my kid… so I can't beat ya…" said Flint slyly. Flint then looked over to me with an evil grin. He took his knife away from Ness's chest and then put his index finger on Ness's forehead. "go away! Go find your own dad if you want to play!"

Ness slowly disappeared following my dad's harsh words, I could only guess that our psychic link was broken once more.

Flint then started to approach me. As he did so, his head was slightly pointed downwards yet his eyes were fixated on mine. I desperately tried to turn around and run for my life, but it seemed that I was caught in the same trap as Ness had been. By this point, Flint was only inches away from me, I could feel the heat from his breath on my face, it still smelled like coffee and cigarettes, a traditional cowboy diet.

"Don't be scared, my son… Daddies only gonna beat ya… you're already familiar of this little game we like to play, aren't you?" said Flint ominously. Flint then took his knife and put it to my chest and applied a little bit of pressure causing me to yelp in fear. "You disappoint me… what father would love a weak brat like you?"

"I… I'm sorry… that… I wasn't as strong… as Claus!"

"You… you think that this is about Claus?" interrupted Flint.

"It is… isn't it?" I asked nervously.

"No you brat… this is about Ness!"

"What about him?" I questioned.

"The only thing that I never liked about you is… what you are…" told Flint.

"A… A psychic?" I added to try and fill the gap in the conversation. I think, deep down, I knew what was coming… my remark would likely have been a way to plant false thoughts in Flint's mind.

"Not a psychic… A homosexual!"

My heart tore into two equal pieces at this moment. I knew it wasn't really my dad because he would never have said such a thing to anyone let alone his own child, but nonetheless, it was still his voice that escaped his lips.

Tears began to well up in my eyes as Flint held the knife up at my chest.

"AWW! What a surprise?! Lucas the cry-baby is crying again…"

"…"

"you dirty little wretch… you spat in my face the moment you kissed that pathetic excuse for a boy… you'll burn for an eternity because of your sins… sinners get punished… sinners get beaten… don't worry… daddies gonna beat the sin outta ya…!"

Flint dropped the stick in his hand and folded it into a fist. He raised it ready to deliver a powerful shot.

"Don't worry son… Daddies here…"

Flint then expelled his fist forward and just as it impacted my stomach, I sat up from my bed breathing in and out heavily. I sat there for about ten minutes processing what had just happened, Ness who was sitting by my side, placed a hand on my shoulder and asked if I was okay…

What was I supposed to say?


	21. Chapter 21: Love Is Not a Sin!

Ness simply gazed into my eyes lovingly with questions flying through his mind. I longed to tell him what had happened but I daren't. what if I had told him what a figment of my own imagination had told me, he'd take it the wrong way for sure.

It would break Ness's heart to know that I planted that thought in my own mind… but, what if I was right… is it a sin to love someone who is the same gender?

"Lucas? What's the matter?" asked Ness worriedly.

"Um… it's nothing…" I mumbled as I got out of bed and left the room.

_"__I wonder what's bothering him…"_ Ness thought to himself.

I made my way quickly down the creaky stairs and to my surprise, everyone was still asleep. I grabbed my shoes and left out of the front door, soon after, Ness descended from the stairs and looked around for me.

"Err… Ness… wha?... what time is it?" asked Paula as she woke up.

"About six-ish…" responded Ness. "Has anyone seen Lucas?"

"… Lucas?... well I heard… the door open… maybe it was him…" mumbled Kumatora in between yawns.

_"__Where could you be?" _Ness postulated to himself.

Ness then dashed back up the stairs and got dressed into his usual blue and yellow shirt and blue shorts. My whereabouts was on his mind the entire time…

A fairly short walk from the train station in the middle of the village led to the cemetery. That's where I was headed. I needed to visit my mother's grave to let off some steam.

_"__Hey Mom… it's been too long…" _I thought.

I sat there staring at the inscription on the tomb stone for a while, reading the words "may Hinawa rest in peace" over and over again, all the while thinking about what my dad said in my dream. Even if it wasn't him, the dream was of my own making… those feelings came from me and no-one else. But I love Ness? How could love be a sin? It isn't! it doesn't matter if two boys or two girls or a boy and a girl love each other, love is still love. Love isn't gender biased or race biased… not even religion… love is just love.

I was raised as a Christian by my devout parents, while we rarely went to church, the teachings of Christianity were heavily followed in our house much to the dismay of me and my brother. Christianity teaches us that we should love our neighbours, but not love. Given that our neighbours are probably the same gender as us, we shouldn't love them like that… my dad was a firm believer in that, would he really be disappointed in me for being gay?

Claus is gay too; would that mean that our dad would be disappointed in us both?

As soon as Mom died, the Christian teachings in my household died too. My dad stopped going to church and stopped praying before dinner, as did I. Claus wasn't there to see what a heartless father our dad became after Mom's death. He grew so cold that he wouldn't even smile when he saw me, he wouldn't come home for multiple nights at a time, he'd either have fallen asleep at Mom's grave or in the mountains while he was looking for Claus. Eventually, he stopped coming home all together… he stopped being our dad and now, he isn't even here to see both his children alive and well… he doesn't even know that Claus is still alive, he clearly doesn't care enough to come home and find that out.

It finally became clear to me, whatever my dad had said in my dream didn't matter anymore. The moment he walked out that door and never came back was the moment he stopped being my dad. Even if he came back now, not a single word he said would matter to me in the slightest.

After my little epiphany, I stood up and began to walk away from my mother's grave where I then saw Ness waiting for me.

"Hey—" said Ness as I did nothing but wrap my arms around him and buried my head in his neck. I didn't know why but I started sobbing, I guess it was the relief of finally coming to terms with this internal struggle about my sexuality.

Ness wrapped his arms around me in response and we began to walk side by side…

"Where are we going?" I asked as I wiped the tears.

"We're gonna go relax in the hot springs, I think after last night, we both could use it…"

I nodded as an answer even though Ness didn't require an answer, after all, he didn't ask a question.

We finally arrived at the hot springs, Ness eagerly removed his clothes from his body and seeped into the hot bath, he then beckoned for me to hurry up and join him. I started by taking off my shirt and then my shoes. Judging by the fact that Ness's underwear was dropped over the rest of his clothes, I'd guess that Ness was naked underneath the steaming water, using this as a guide for how undress I should be, I followed suit and removed everything that I was wearing.

I covered my privates with my hands as I slowly sank into the bath and let the steamy water cover my entire body letting out a slight 'ahh' as I did so.

"This is nice…" said Ness as he sank a little deeper and let the water come up to his neck.

"yeah…" I responded.

"So Lucas… why did you run out on me this morning?"

"I think you'd be better off not knowing…" I answered.

"okay… if you say so…"

Me and Ness floated in this bath for quite a while, we allowed ourselves enough time to relax fully but not to pass out from the heat. We sat quite close together in the bath, my right shoulder was about an inch away from his left shoulder and our hands were intertwined beneath the cloudy water.

This almost lifeless feeling we had was rather delightful in all honesty, to lie there weightlessly, I wish I could have stayed there forever but of course I couldn't.

"Lucas?" asked Ness.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Are you worried about the future? Is that why you've been a little distant?"

"what do you mean?"

"Well… I'm from a distant world and after we beat Giegue, I'm gonna have to go back there…" explained Ness.

"Oh right… to be honest, that hasn't been on my mind recently." I told. "I've mostly been thinking about how you're my first boyfriend and how happy you make me…"

Ness started to blush at my last remark, I'd guess he wasn't so good with his feelings to begin with and this made it a little awkward.

"… You make me happy too…" mumbled Ness who's face was now as red as a tomato.

The pulse I felt in my hand was not my own, it was Ness's and it was beating a million times faster than it should have been… Ness seemed to be so cool and calm to begin with, but now that feelings are included in the mix, he's gone all shy?

These kind of moments with Ness are the ones I cherish the most, nothing overly special happens, we're just together, enjoying each other's company. Of course, I wasn't looking forward to saying goodbye forever but at least we could still make new memories together until then and then I could cherish those after he's gone… I shouldn't worry about that too much at the moment, after all, he is still here. I'll just enjoy these moments with him while I can.

Kumatora and Paula were standing in the kitchen chatting about inappropriate things as always, every couple of minutes or so, they'd look over to Claus and Fuel who were cuddling on the sofa. Then they would gush over it for a bit and return to their conversation and pretend that they weren't looking that way.

"Say? Where's Ness and Lucas?" asked Kumatora as she suddenly realised the two hadn't been seen since this morning.

"I don't know, they both went out this morning…" said Paula. "Hold on, lemme check…"

Paula closed her eyes and started to send out pulses of psychic energy so that she could locate the missing boys.

*Gasp*

"What is it? Does Giegue have em, I'LL KILL THE BASTARD!" cried Kumatora.

"No… it's worse…"

"What?"

"They're having a moment… WITHOUT US!" explained Paula as she tried to contain her tears.

"…"

"Kuma—"

"I'MA KILL EM!"

"Gurl! Calm down… we can still watch… they're at the hot spring in the forest…"

"Let's go gurl!"

The duo put their shoes on and eagerly dashed out of house causing the door to slam behind them. If there was going to be a Nesscas moment, they sure as hell weren't going to miss it.

Ness and I were still soaking in the hot spring when we heard something in the tree above us start to shake causing a few of the leaves to fall and float on the water's surface.

"What was that?... is there something up there?" I asked nervously to Ness.

"I don't know, I can't see anything…" replied Ness.

Soon after, the shaking of the tree stopped so Ness and I shrugged it off and continued our relaxing bath… all of the shaking should have been a cue for us to leave, of course, we thought nothing of it.

"Be quiet!" whispered Kumatora angrily. "They almost saw us!"

"I'm sorry… maybe if we knew they'd be here beforehand, we could have prepared better—" responded Paula.

"SSHHHHHH!" silenced Kumatora.

They both didn't let a single breath escape their lungs as their eyes remained widened and they waited… why did they stop? Because Ness was getting suspicious.

"Okay… there's definitely something up there!" exclaimed Ness loudly being sure to alert whatever was sitting in the tree.

_"__Oh Crap! They know we're here!" _said Kumatora telepathically to Paula.

_"__Chill, they don't know it's us yet…" _replied Paula.

They then both sat quietly as they began to hear a strange sound coming from the tree. It appears that because they chose to sit so close to the end of the branch, the branch was beginning to snap.

**_*CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK*_**

"OH SH*T!" yelled the duo as they began the quick descent into the pool of hot water beneath them.

A huge splash erupted from the pool that drenched the heads of Ness and me. A little bit of hot water got into our eyes and we couldn't see anything much to the luck of Paula and Kumatora. Kumatora concentrated some of her PSI to her hands and propelled herself upwards and behind the trees, Paula was still left in the pool. As she desperately tried to make her getaway, her red ribbon got caught on a tree and was pulled out of her hair without her noticing.

Ness and I continued to rub our eyes until we could finally see again. The only trace of what had happened was the rather large tree branch that laid there right in front of us, partially submerged in steamy water.

"What was that?!" I asked loudly.

"I honestly have no idea…" responded Ness. "Wait!"

"What is it?"

"What's that red thing over there?" asked Ness, pointing to the red object that hung on a tree branch.

"Huh!" I said as I stared back at it.

"We should get dressed before we do anything…"

I looked down at my own body and realised that I almost climbed up there to investigate further, all the while butt-naked. "Yeah! Suppose you're right!"

Ness and I took no regard for whether we were dry and simply put on our clothes. I was a little upset that my fabulous quiff was flattened by the water but soon enough, it sprang back to life.

Ness walked over to the hill side. He stared at the steep wall of rock and mud and postulated how he would reach the red object on the tree.

"How are we going to get up there?" asked Ness while pulling a frowny face.

"What if we concentrate some PSI to our feet and then let it push us off the ground?" I told. Ness looked at me questioningly. "like this!"

I took in a deep breath and focused all of the PSI in my body to my feet, being sure not to concentrate too much as I didn't want to go flying. It charged for several seconds and then I released it allowing it to propel me all the way to the top of the hill.

"Now its your turn!" I yelled back to Ness as I turned around to look at him.

"okay!"

Ness then repeated the steps I had given him and launched off of the ground almost instantly… only he didn't charge it for long enough…

**_*SMAAAAAAAACK*_**

Ness had literally face planted the side of a hill. I was kind of amazed that that could happen. He then peeled off of it like a sticky spider and slid down the wall and landed on the ground, I couldn't help but let out a slight giggle.

"You okay?" I asked whilst trying to contain my laughter.

"… Yahuh!" replied Ness in a seemingly embarrassed tone.

"You didn't charge it for long enough!" I yelled back at him.

"I realise that!" he replied frustratedly.

Ness took the stance once again and focused a little harder and concentrated it for longer, finally, he tried again.

Ness was propelled significantly higher this time and almost stuck the landing… until he fell flat onto his face, at least this time, he had actually made it up the ledge.

We both converged around the red object that hung loosely around the tree branch and examined it closely.

"It looks like a ribbon!" observed Ness.

"Duster had a snake that looked like that once!" I added.

"Where did it come from…?"

"I don't know, but I'm getting a little cold, should we head back now?"

"yeah… that's probably a good idea, I'm a little chilly now that you mention it!"

Ness and I made our way back to my house, both of us hungry and cold. Not drying before we got dressed was a bad idea.

We finally arrived at my house and we slowly dragged ourselves up the stairs. It was shocking to realise that it was only 8:30 AM and it felt like we have had an entire days-worth of adventure in those two hours.

I felt ready to demolish an entire buffet of food, the only reason being that I had accidentally skipped out on breakfast much like Ness had done. Paula passed us by when we opened the door and stepped in.

"Hey Paula!" asked Ness.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"You not wearing your ribbon today?"

Paula then touched the top of her head and realised that her bright red ribbon was no longer tied in her hair.

"Oh!... I must have forgotten to put it in… hehehe!" cried Paula nervously.

"mkay… whatever…" replied Ness.

Ness and I shrugged it off as being suspicious, Paula seemed kind of like the absent-minded type, so this wasn't really out of the ordinary… however, I'd think it worth noting that she didn't ogle over the fact that me and Ness entered together… now that was out of the ordinary.

It seemed as though Claus and Fuel had finally fallen asleep at some point last night and were still in the room and were snoring rather loudly.

I took a seat on a stool in the kitchen and thought about what I would do with the rest of the day since it felt like nearly all of it should be gone by this point and yet there were still another 12 hours of daylight to come.


	22. Chapter 22: That's What Friends are for

_While this chapter focuses on Claus and Fuel, the perspective will be 3__rd__person… it'll work better that way… I promise! By the by, this is just a filler chapter, nothing important happens in it, some funny bits though._

Claus and Fuel had spent most of the morning snoring and drooling because that's what some people do when they sleep for some reason. The time was 11:38 AM and the duo had only just woken up.

Claus itched the back of his head as he stretched and broke the hunched over position he had woken up in, meanwhile, Fuel hugged the blanket that covered him during his sleep suggesting he didn't want to wake up despite it being so late in the day already.

"Fuel! Wake up dude! What? Are ya gonna sleep the day away or sumthin?" mumbled Claus as he stretched his arms out.

"Mmmm… five more minutes…" pleaded Fuel.

"Dude… No! it's like lunch time! Wake up!" demanded Claus as he threw a pillow at the latter.

"Mkay fine!"

The two finally rose from their bed and headed downstairs to find an empty house, Kumatora and Paula had gone into the village to buy some supplies for the next training exercise. The only two people that knew what said training exercise would be were Kumatora and Paula naturally. Ness and Lucas had gone to the arcade to kill some time until dinner and Poo, Jeff and Duster hadn't been seen since the night before.

There was a hand-written note on the table that read…

Claus!

We're all out today so feel free to do

Whatever you want, there are lots of people

In the village who would like to see you.

Angie and Caroline were asking about you the

Last time we went into their bakery.

If you give one of the frogs this card,

You can take some money out of my account

And do something with it.

Ness and I are at the arcade if you want to join us.

Lots of love, Lucas.

"Hey Fuel?"

"Yeah?"

"What is 'Money'?" asked Claus confusedly.

"You really don't know what money is?" questioned Fuel.

Claus blushed in response to that question… he thought that his lack of knowledge as to what money made him look especially stupid. How was he supposed to know? He's been a mindless robot for the past three years…

"Should I?" asked Claus.

"Yeah… Money is what we use in exchange of something, we use dragon points here… for example, a cinnamon roll costs 2 DP—"

"Did you say Cinnamon Rolls?!"

"… yeah?"

"I LOVE CINNAMON ROLLS!" Cried Claus excitedly. "WHERE IS THE HOUSE OF CINNAMON ROLLS?!"

"… In the village—"

Claus then grabbed Fuel by the shirt and dragged him out the door and down the steps of the porch and headed in the direction of the village towards the bakery. A small 'ugh' sound escaped Fuel's lips as he fell down each wooden step at the front of the house.

**_*RING, RING*_**

That ringing sound had originated from the bell that hung above the door to the bakery that Lucas and Ness had been to a couple of weeks ago. The door swung open aggressively and a hungry Claus stepped through it pulling Fuel by his shirt which was now stretched beyond fit.

Claus dashed over to the glass display case that showed hundreds of different hand-baked goods, each one looked just as mouth-watering as the last.

Fuel stood up whilst trying to soothe his aching body after literally being dragged through the mud.

"Um…" mumbled the baker. "Are… Are you… Claus?"

"Yeah?" replied Claus questioningly. A sudden moment of realisation overcame him after realising that everyone thought he was dead for this long period of time.

"Oh yeah… Surprise! I'm not dead!" yelled Claus as he tried to break the awkward tension.

"How?" asked the baker.

"—" gasped Claus before Fuel interjected.

"We'll take two cinnamon rolls to go please!" yelled Fuel.

"Err… yes, of course!"

The baker then stepped into the kitchen to fetch two paper bags and something to serve the cinnamon rolls with. After about two seconds, one could clearly hear the baker shout "WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK!?" before returning with the items he had fetched.

Using the spatula thing that he had selected, the baker scooped up two cinnamon rolls one at a time, placed it gently in the paper bag and then placed those two bags in a larger paper bag… THIS IS WHY THE TREES ARE DYING!... he then looked at the two 13-year olds that stood before him and asked for 4 dragon points in exchange for the goods.

Fuel handed four silver coins over as the baker whispered under his breath, 'great, more change! Doesn't anyone in this damn village carry notes?'

The two boys eagerly grabbed the paper bag and left the bakery.

As the door closed behind them, Fuel handed Claus one of the smaller paper bags, he then ripped it open and sank his teeth into the soft and buttery pastry letting out a small 'mmm' as he did so. Fuel then followed suit and copied Claus.

The duo wiped their mouths in unison after finishing their treats and then threw their rubbish into the bin. Claus then turned to Fuel with a question.

"Hey! Whatcha wanna do now?" asked Claus keenly.

"I dunno… wanna go relax in the hot springs?"

"Yeah, but the one in the forest has been closed off for some reason… apparently a tree fell into it or something…"

"What about the other ones?" asked Fuel.

"What other ones?" responded Claus confusedly.

"The other hot springs… like the ones in the train tunnel and near club titiboo…"

"Okay sure… in the tunnel you say?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay sure!"

Claus then put an arm around Fuel's shoulders and compelled the latter to walk in the same pattern as the former.

The duo soon made their way to the entrance of the train tunnel.

After aimless wandering, a couple of moments when they thought they had gotten lost and a near death experience when a train nearly ripped their heads off, our favourite OTP had finally made their way to the small valley type of clearing in which many sparkly butterflies roamed and the ladder to a hot spring stood as tall as the wall.

I'm just kidding by the way… of course Nesscas is our favourite OTP… that's why you're here, isn't it?

Fuel eagerly took off his red and white shirt, tossed it to the side and started to climb the many pegs of the ladder to reach the top. From the floor, Claus could see Fuel's shorts, shoes and socks be thrown from the very top. Luckily for Claus, Fuel's underwear did not reach the floor… they may have been together, but that doesn't mean that Claus is ready for that.

Claus then heard the small sound of the water in the springs being displaced and drew the conclusion that Fuel had got in gently, Claus assumed he should do the same.

The carrot topped teen then took off his Green and Yellow striped shirt, folded it and set it down gently. He then removed his socks and shoes and began to climb the ladder with the intent to leave his shorts beside the hot spring, so it is less awkward when he gets out.

Claus finally reached the top of the ladder and found the hot spring and a strange female figure bathing in the hot spring with her chest exposed making the former rather uncomfortable.

This female had long brown hair that was tied up in a bun with two long curly strands that dangled down at the sides of her face. Her face was lightly made up with a little bit of mascara and eye shadow but did have a noticeable thick layer of pink lip gloss on.

"H… Hello?" called Claus.

"Oh! Hi there! I'm Nenryo! What's your name?" responded the strange female.

"I'm Claus… Have you seen my friend Fuel?"

"Oh! Fuel's your friend, huh?"

"Yeah… you know him?" Claus questioned.

"Well kind of…" told Nenryo. "I am him…"

"But… you're a girl, Fuel's a boy!" protested Claus.

"You… Don't know Japanese, do you?"

"…"

"Nenryo is Japanese for Fuel… I'm Fuel!"

"B… But you have… bobs… You're a girl!"

"Yes I am, and this water is magic so when Fuel gets into the water, it temporarily changes him into a girl… I'll change back after I get out…"

"Good… Get out!" cried Claus after a few moments of debating on whether to demand such a thing.

Nenryo then followed Claus's orders and stood up exposing… everything… she then stepped out and changed back into Fuel, this transformation was pretty anticlimactic, you'd think spontaneously changing genders would have a little more oomph, but it was a simple glow that wasn't even that bright and poof, he's Fuel again.

The duo put their clothes back on and prepared to make their way back to the village once again.

After exiting the dark tunnel and being caught in daylight once more, the pair passed a save frog who was driving a little red car. Claus handed him the card that Lucas had left and withdrew 500 dragon points and split it equally between himself and Fuel leaving each other with 250 DP.

The two then set off towards the arcade so they could join up with Ness and Lucas and play some cool games to pass the remainder of the time left in the day.

"Hey Claus!" cried Lucas from the opposite end of the arcade. "What game is that?"

"Oh… I think it's called… _EarthBound?" _replied Claus.

"What's that about?" asked Ness curiously.

"Oh… some alien is like, trying to destroy the world or something, some bee thing said so…"

"huh… it almost sounds like—"

"DON'T YOU DARE UTTER ANOTHER WORD!" yelled Mr. Author from his unknown origin.

"Wha?... why?" protested Ness.

"BECAUSE FINISHING THAT SENTENCE WOULD MEAN THE COMPLETE COLLAPSE OF THE FOURTH WALL… AND I'VE GOT PLANS FOR WHATS COMING SO YOU BETTER NOT JEOPARDISE IT!" persisted Mr. Author.

The four boys stared back at one another with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

"I AM LEAVING NOW… I have a booty call… ALL OF YOU BE ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOUR AND IF YOU DARE DAMAGE THE FOURTH WALL ANY MORE, YOU'LL DISAPPEAR AND THAT WON'T BE VERY FUN SO FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, DO NOT SPEAK OF THE FOURTH WALL!"

_"__I swear this only happens when I speak?" _thought Ness as he postulated the events that had just transpired.

Claus immediately turned back to his game and ignored the others, Ness and Fuel were playing some air hockey game and Lucas was staring into space thinking about what Mr. Author had said.

"Hey guys?" asked Lucas quietly.

"Yeah?" returned the others.

"What's a booty call?" Lucas asked innocently.

"—" gasped Fuel as if he was about to speak before Claus covered his mouth to preserve the innocence of his younger twin.

"A booty call is… um… when you want to give someone your booties because they don't fit anymore… yeah…!" answered Ness with a slight catch in his throat.

"Oh… then I should probably call Nichol and ask him for a booty call—" said Lucas with his innocence remaining intact.

"No you shouldn't!" interjected Claus.

"Why not? My booties don't fit anymore!"

"Because… err… NICHOL SUCKS!" cried Claus. "And he smells, you don't want him to wear your booties… donate them or something…"

"But a booty call sounds fun!" protested Lucas. "WHY CAN'T I HAVE A BOOTY CALL?!"

"Lucas… because… err… um… you're too nice?" added Ness. "Nichol will… take advantage of your… niceness?"

"Oh… well… if you say so… I guess I should find someone else to have a booty call with…" said Lucas as he started to scribble on a piece of paper.

"what're you writing?" asked Claus nervously.

Looking for someone to have a booty call with!  
Call now!  
I am willing to do it for free if that is better—

"NOOOOO!" Cried Claus and Ness in unison as Claus snatched the paper from Lucas's hand and tore it into thousands of pieces.

Lucas and the other three proceeded to argue about booty calls for the next hour, with Lucas being persistent on having one… at least Claus and Ness were there to stop him doing something stupid.


	23. Chapter 23: Because I loved you

_This Chapter is once again set in a 3__rd__person perspective. This chapter is entirely a flash back so don't think you're tripping or something, it's more or less a short story. Enjoy!_

The sun rose on a dew kissed morning with the drops of water that had beaded up on the flowers in the garden sparkling in the light. From the well-maintained porch with not so squeaky steps descended an elegant woman with soft, chestnut hair and a red dress. She knelt down to her flower beds that rested underneath the front windows of the easily recognisable log cabin and gently rubbed some of the petals of the flowers, taking in a deep breath and absorbing their beautiful scent as she did so.

She breathed a gentle sigh as she took in the magnificent sun rise of that morning that glistened on the surface of the sea. She then retreated into the cabin quickly.

"Good morning, my dear Hinawa!" said a male, cowboy type figure as he hugged the woman from behind and kissed the back of her neck.

"Morning Flint!" exclaimed Hinawa in response as she put her soft hand on his face and returned his kiss.

"Are they awake yet?"

"Not yet my love, I don't think they know what we have planned yet… I even made their favourite!"

"Omelettes?"

"Of course! Sometimes it's the only thing I can get them to eat!"

The two of them both silenced themselves as they heard a scuffle come from one of the bedrooms upstairs.

From the stairs descended two small boys, both with a light strawberry-blonde coloured hair that had streaks of what their hair colours would evolve into as they grew older.

One of the children was clutching a fluffy brown teddy bear with a white ribbon tied around its neck with one of his hands. The other wasn't holding anything and was rubbing his eyes as he tried to get over his tiredness.

"1…2…3… HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!" yelled Flint and Hinawa simultaneously.

The two twins began to grin as their parents had made them think that they had forgotten about their fourth birthday.

Flint stepped over to the stair case and lifted his two children into his arms holding both of them tightly.

"Mama, Dada, what're we doin' today?" asked the one twin with little streaks of orange in his hair.

"Well Claus, that is a surprise… you'll have to wait and see…" said Hinawa excitedly.

"Mama?" cried the other twin with little blonde streaks in his hair. He seemed to be really shy and liked to avoid confrontation at any cost.

"Yes Lucas?" responded Hinawa as she lifted Lucas into her arms.

"I'm hungry…"

"Me too!" cried Claus from Flint's arms.

"Then good news to the both of you, your mother has made your favourite for breakfast—"

"OMELETTES!" cried the twins in unison.

They then loosened themselves from the grip of their parents and ran towards the dinner table. The dinner table was set out with a pale pink table cloth that drooped over the solid oak table diagonally. In the centre of the table cloth stood a glass vase with a bouquet of sunflowers in it. There were four plates set out on the table with knives and forks beside each and a stack of napkins beside the vase.

In the living room of the house which connected to the open plan kitchen in the back, was a tall unit, so tall that Claus and Lucas at this tender age couldn't even reach the top. There were many picture frames scattered throughout which all displayed various memories of great sentimental value to the family such as the photos from Hinawa and Flint's wedding and the baby pictures of Claus and Lucas and not to mention the photos of them all together long before tragedy had ripped them apart leaving Lucas all alone.

There was even a photo from the very day that Lucas and Claus were born, in said photo laid a weary Hinawa holding her two precious miracles atop a white bed with her husband by her side holding her hand in his.

This was perhaps the most treasured photo that the husband and wife had come to acquire and rested at the very top of the unit to show it off in a way, it was also one of the biggest photos on the unit.

Hinawa emerged from the kitchen holding two plates in her hands that she then served to the twins, the latter of whom began to indulge in their favourite food almost immediately. Hinawa then picked up another two plates from the side in the kitchen and placed them in the spots where Flint and herself were preparing to eat.

Nothing but the sounds of knives and forks scraping against the porcelain plates could be heard amongst the sounds of chewing and slight 'mmm' sounds from the twins and their parents.

Flint demolished his breakfast leaving nothing but a slight residue of the food that once sat on the plate. He stood up and placed his plate in the sink leaving it submerged in the water ready for when himself and his wife would tackle the chores together after the twins had gone to bed.

"Off already, Darling?" asked Hinawa in a cheerful voice.

"Yeah, the sheep need shearing, so I'd better get to it…"

"AWW!" cried the twins simultaneously. "You're not gonna spend our birthday with us, dada?" asked Claus disappointedly.

"Sorry boys, but don't worry, I'll be back in time for your party—"

"FLINT! NO!" cried Hinawa.

"Party?" questioned Claus.

"OH! Whoops!" cried Flint. "Well I'd better get going… hehehe…" he repeated as he nervously dashed out the front door knowing that if he stuck around, Hinawa would definitely lay into him.

"Mama, we're havin' a party?" asked Lucas with a slightly worried expression on his face.

"Yes we are my darlings… don't worry Lucas, it's just a couple of friends from the village, there won't be anyone new there I promise!" said Hinawa reassuringly.

Lucas's mind eased knowing that he wouldn't have to interact with any strangers at his own party. Lucas wasn't the kind of child that found meeting new people easy. Some children thrive in that sort of situation, Claus is one such child, but his twin brother, on the other hand, was as shy as they come. The only friends Lucas had made throughout his entire life was the ones he grew up with, the ones he used to play with from the very day he was born. Claus on the other hand, had made quite a few new friends at his pre-school, none of which were invited to the party for Lucas's sake.

The boys had finally finished their meal as had Hinawa. She cleared the table and ordered her sons to go and change into their clothes for the thrilling day ahead that Hinawa had planned.

Lucas tried to remove his pyjama shirt all by himself but had gotten it stuck over his head as he didn't know how to undo the buttons, Claus did and had to assist his slightly younger brother with his shirt.

"Let me help Lukey!" cried Claus as he pulled Lucas's shirt back down and unfastened the buttons so Lucas could take it off. From the moment they were born, Claus and Lucas had an inseparable bond that became apparent as soon as they weren't in the same room as each other, sure they had their squabbles but what siblings didn't?

"Thanks Clausie!" Replied Lucas as he pulled his red and Yellow stripy shirt over his head and down his stomach.

Claus grinned at his younger twin as he slowly unfastened the buttons on his pyjamas and replaced them with his usual green and yellow shirt and orange trousers.

The pair then eagerly dashed down the stairs and back into the living room where their Mother was waiting, holding a picnic basket in one hand and a red and white checked blanket in the other.

"Come on, boys! Let's go have fun!" cried Hinawa as her little boys nodded with grins on their faces.

The twins followed their mother out of the front door and towards the village. They had a little stop to make first.

The twins were walking beside their mother as they followed the dirt path towards Tazmily Village closely. Claus was walking on the left side of the path and Lucas was walking on the right with their mother in between.

"Mama are we gonna have a picnic?" asked Lucas quietly.

"Yup! But before then, I have a little surprise for you…" responded Hinawa in her usual cheery voice that calmed anyone who heard it.

"A surprise?" questioned Claus.

"Well of course. I couldn't not get you both a present, could I?" she answered.

"ooooh!" the boys responded with.

I know I made it seem like the trio were headed towards the village for the present, but they were actually going further than that. They were headed towards Isaac's cabin in the woods. Luckily it was the day time, so no creepy crawlies were lurking in the forest. It would remain in this peaceful state until Fassad got his grubby hands on the village in the years to come.

After a seemingly endless trek for the boys and their little legs, they finally reached the cabin with their surprise waiting inside.

**_*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK*_**

The door swung open revealing a tall man with black hair and a big nose waiting inside.

"Ah! Good morning guys!" said Isaac happily.

"Morning Isaac, say hello boys!" said Hinawa in her light pitched voice. Hinawa never had to raise her voice at her kids, her voice had such an angelic presence that they would obey whatever she said. She was a genuinely caring person who would never intentionally hurt anyone or anything.

The twins didn't know who Isaac was by this point, the same was true for many residents of the village, of course that would change in a couple of years, so they were understandably shy.

Lucas had tried to hide his entire body behind the legs of his mother while Claus used one arm to cling to the left leg of Hinawa.

"Hello…" said Claus quietly displaying a little of Lucas's classic shy demeaner.

"Hi…" said Lucas so quietly that he almost couldn't be heard at all.

Isaac then invited them in to his cabin.

The cabin was sparsely decorated with only one or two photos and a bed, there was also a table in the centre of the room and a small mound of cushions and blankets behind it for a purpose that you're soon going to find out.

Isaac beckoned the twins and their mother around the table to the back where they saw a tiny brown dog curled up on top of the blankets and cushions. The dog then woke up and yawned, he then looked up to the trio of strangers that stood before him.

"Boys meet the newest member of our family… this little guy is our new doggy!" said Hinawa in a gentle tone.

"Yay! A puppy!" cried Claus excitedly as he knelt down to pet the small ball of fur that was now sitting upright.

Claus was especially gentle with the dog so as not to hurt him.

Lucas was now clinging to his mother's dress even tighter now. Lucas loved animals but was also scared of them somehow and now an animal is going to come and live with them?

"Lucas go on… he won't hurt you, I promise…" told Hinawa as Lucas slowly edged away from his mother's side and towards the dog. Claus then stood up to let Lucas have some space to pet their new friend.

Lucas extended a hand towards the puppy and stroked the soft and fluffy fur on his head.

Lucas smiled gently as he got more and more involved with the adorable little doggy which was their new friend.

_"__hello! You must be my new friend!"_ said the puppy to Lucas. Lucas could talk with animals since the day he was born so he thought nothing was a miss.

_"__Hi! You're really fluffy!" _replied Lucas causing the puppy to let out a little bark. The bark was high pitched and very cute.

"What should we call him, boys?" asked Hinawa.

"Let's call him Fluffy!" cried Claus excitedly.

Lucas once again knelt down to the dog and started talking with him again.

_"__Hey there! What do you like to be called?" _asked Lucas.

_"__My mommy used to call me Boney, I like Boney!" _responded the puppy.

"can we call him Boney?" asked Lucas quietly.

Hinawa giggled and smiled at her child. "I like Boney, yeah, let's call him Boney!"

"Aww man!" cried Claus under his breath.

Hinawa and the twins spent the next fifteen minutes playing with the newest member of the family, many cuddles and kisses were given during this time.

Hinawa then opened up part of the picnic basket that was completely empty and allowed Boney to climb into it for an easier time carrying him. The kids then said thank you to Isaac who then wished them a happy birthday in return. The family was finally complete after all this time.

Hinawa and the kids made their way to a secluded part of the island which was shrouded in trees and had a little stream that flowed past them. Hinawa set out the blanket and then sat down. She picked Boney up out of the basket and let him run around with the kids as she set out the sandwiches, cookies, sausage rolls and juice boxes that she had bought with them to eat as well as a small plate of sausages for Boney to eat.

The boys tucked into the delicious snacks that their mom had bought and played with their new friend until noon. They then all got tuckered out and just laid there in a nice and big cuddle pile.

Claus was resting beside his mother with his head on her lap and Lucas was resting his head against his mothers shoulder, Boney was gnawing on the sausages that Hinawa had bought and the boys dozed off whilst their mom stared at the clouds that passed her by.

Lucas squirmed a little and partially woke up a little. He rubbed his eyes, smiled and whispered, "I love you mama, this is the best birthday ever!" and then dozed off again.

What most people would perceive as an empty sentiment or just what children say when it's their birthday meant the world to Hinawa. Those words from her timid child filled her heart with joy and made her think, how can I possibly be this lucky… lucky enough to have the kindest children in the entire world…

She smiled as she looked back at her children and thought… it's because they know nothing but the love me and their father feel for them, these children are my heart…

She then looked back up to the clouds that were flying past her head and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that even if she wasn't there to protect them, they'd protect each other.


	24. Chapter 24: Hide and Seek!

_We back in the normal time frame again; the day after they went to the arcade. Lucas and Ness were once again sleeping in the same bed (without any nightmares, rather the previous chapter would make a better dream state memory or something for the night just gone), Claus and Fuel were once again sharing the parental bedroom, only this time, they actually slept. Kumatora and Paula were using the seashell house in near mount oriander to prepare for today's training exercise and they slept there. Duster and the others were still sleeping in the Yado Inn. This chapter will be told from Lucas's point of view._

It was a pretty dull morning today. The sky was grey and miserable, and the wind was rather strong. The girls were outside once again and were building a stage out of crates once more. There was only one microphone this time so there was no indication of singing this time.

Upon opening the front door and stepping outside with Ness by my side, I noticed five box-shaped items set out on a table with coloured head bands beside them. The colours of these head bands were red, blue, yellow, green and pink and there were two of every colour.

The girls then beckoned us out, so we obeyed.

"What's all this?" asked Ness in a slightly higher-pitched voice.

Kumatora and Paula looked to the stage and then back to Ness and me.

"Today's training exercise… tee hee" said Paula innocently.

I looked over to the many items on the table with confusion. "what kind of training exercise is it?"

"You'll have to wait and see…" replied Kumatora ominously.

Almost on cue, Poo, Jeff and Duster all walked in from the slope that connected my house to the village.

"Ah! Hello captain! And of course, Mr. Captain!" said Poo.

"Err… who is Mr. Captain?" asked Jeff who was looking back at the almost bald prince.

"His one true pairing, obviously…" responded Poo. "My ladies, did I use that term correctly?"

"Not quite, but ya almost had it!" replied Paula.

"Ness, what're they talking about?" I asked nervously.

"oh… I think it has something to do with us being a couple?" said Ness as he was beginning to blush.

My cheeks then filled with the same red glow that Ness had in his face while the fujoshies explained to Poo and Jeff what OTP means.

Duster simply grabbed a chair and awaited the exercise to come.

Around the same time, Claus and Fuel emerged from the oak door with bags under their eyes.

"ugh… what's with all the NOISE!?" asked Claus as he dragged his feet down the wooden steps and onto the lush grass.

"Yeah… you woke us *yawn* up!" echoed Fuel.

"Oh! I was just about to pick which fryin' pan I was gonna use to wake y'all up, but never mind!" said Paula displaying her bizarre southern accent.

"you were gonna hit us with a frying pan?!" gulped Fuel.

"Yeah!"

"This is why I feel bad all the time?"

"Look at ya, what reason you got to feel good?" responded Paula slyly as she let out a slight giggle.

"No! I meant… my head hurts a lot!" protested Fuel.

"well I do always aim for the head…" added Paula.

Fuel gulped as Paula turned around and headed towards the stage. She stepped onto it and held the mic in her hands.

"Okay, now that everyone's—"

"YOU'RE TELLING IT WRONG!" yelled Kumatora as she stepped onto the stage. "Gimme that!"

Kumatora then snatched the mic out of Paula's hand and began to explain the rules of the exercise.

"Okay, in a nutshell, we will be playing a cooler game of hide and seek!" said Kumatora.

Everyone began looking to each other and giving their opinions on what Kumatora had said.

"Everyone will be divided up into teams of 2 and will be given a colour, then you must take one of these little boxes that will block our psychic powers so we won't be able to cheat, as long as you hide together, it will work fine."

We all murmured our conversation as we postulated how Kumatora obtained such impressive technology… she probably stole it from the chimera lab or something.

"Okay… onto the teams…"

Red team: Kumatora and Paula

Blue team: Ness and Lucas

Yellow team: Poo and Jeff

Green team: Claus and Fuel

Pink team: Duster

"OKAY, TWO THINGS!" cried Duster from amidst the crowd.

"Hmm?" replied Kumatora.

"WHY AM I ON MY OWN AND WHY AM I ON PINK TEAM?!"

"Because we ran out of team members and colours… it'll be easier to hide if there is just one of you so stop pouting!" said Kumatora calmly.

Duster merely scowled at the pink haired woman before him with disgust and anger towards the predicament the girls had left him in.

Now knowing the teams, we all gathered around the small table and collected our items for the game. The Box was strangely heavy despite being so small and had a large red button on the top of it. I'd guess it was to turn it off or on.

Ness and I tied our blue headbands to around our foreheads and prepared to run and hide… which was the aim of the game.

"OKAY! YOU ALL HAVE THREE MINUTES TO HIDE!" yelled Kumatora from atop the stage. "1… 2… 3… GO!"

On cue, we all took a sprint stance and dashed down the small slope connecting my house to the village. Ness and I hadn't discussed where we would hide, I assumed we wouldn't go anywhere too out of the way, but neither one of us had suggested a hiding place since learning of the training exercise.

"Hey… Huff… Ness?" I said whilst running and gasping for air.

"Yeah… Huff?" he replied.

"Where are we… huff… going to hide?"

"How about… the cliffs… near the… beach?"

"Okay sure!"

As we came to the centre of the village where the town's people would usually gather to see Fassad, we headed left towards the beach. On our way, we passed the scorched remains of Reggie's tent and the shore line beside the road. There was also the sheriff's office and the jail inside it, but we couldn't stop to look at it.

The beach was almost deserted, only one or two people were gathered, and I suspect that one of them was only there to see the pig that is always sunbathing for some reason. How it didn't turn into a pile of roasted pork chops, I don't know.

"How about over here?" asked Ness as he was pointing to a ledge that was behind a rock formation.

"Okay sure!" I said as I joined him and climbed over the rocks.

The ledge sat about a ruler's length from the ocean's surface, one could easily touch it using their hand and would even have additional arm length left over.

Ness and I removed our shoes and socks so we could dangle our feet in the crystal blue water.

"Oh! I should probably turn this thing on!" said Ness as he smashed the round red button causing to glow as it was pressed as far as it could go.

"So what do we do now?" I asked quietly.

"Wait for them to find us I guess?"

I simply nodded in response. I had never really enjoyed waiting for long periods of time, however, sitting on the sea shore with Ness and our feet dangling in the water had something picturesque about it. It was nothing special, it was the very definition of simple in fact. It was like one of those moments in a movie that you'd think 'yeah! Cause that happens in real life… TOTALLY!' and yet here I was living it like my own little fairy tale. It was by no means perfect, but it was just what I needed right now. Some alone time with a little peace and quiet.

"Hey Lucas!"

"yeah?"

"This is nice…"

"Yeah it is… I kind of wish we could just sit here forever and forget about everything…" I added.

"Me too… let's make this our place…"

"what do you mean?"

"Well if one of us is feeling low or anything, we can just come here and stare into the distance…" told Ness.

"Sounds good!" I remarked.

As we both stared off into the horizon, I felt Ness's hand grip mine tightly. It was that kind of moment were it is so perfect the way it is that you daren't say a word just in case you ruin it. As Ness's grip on my hand loosened, I gripped it tighter as to indicate that I didn't want him to take his away.

Ness seemed to be more and more relaxed with my grip on his hand getting tighter. This was a little baffling. I wasn't hurting him or anything, it's just you'd think that if the grip on your hand getting tighter would make you uncomfortable, but it appeared to be doing the opposite for Ness.

Kumatora and Paula had already begun the search and without their powers, it would be a pretty big challenge to find us.

"Wait a sec?" said Paula.

"…" hummed Kumatora as she appeared to be feeling exactly what Paula was feeling.

"Okay! My shota sensors are going crazy! What the hell are we missin'?"

"It appears that Ness and Lucas are holding hands on the cliffside and Claus and Fuel are hugging in a bush!" blurted out Kumatora much to the surprise of her companion.

"Dayum girl! When do my sensors get that strong?!"

"Hunny!" said Kumatora as she flipped a portion of her spiky hair. "You're either born like it or you're not me, there's no grey area…"

"seems unfair if ya ask me…" said Paula as she pouted her lips a little bit.

"Sorry girl, I was born this way!"

"well we need to decide which one we're gonna go watch!"

"Hmmm…" sighed Kumatora. "Well to be honest, Nesscas is the only real OTP… Cuel is cute, but I'm all for Nesscas!"

"Well hey, you said it, not me!" said Paula. "Lead the way sis!"

"Hell yeah!"

Kumatora then dragged Paula by her arm and headed in the direction in which Ness and I were having our moment.

"HEY! MOVE YOUR LEG!" whisper shouted Claus to Fuel. "YOUR FOOT IS HANGING OUT OF THE BUSH!"

"WELL IF YOU WEREN'T HOGGING THE SPACE, MY FOOT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN EXPOSED!" argued Fuel.

"SHHHH!" whispered Claus. "Someone's coming, pull your f**king leg in!"

Just as Fuel hid his leg in the large shrubbery, Duster dashed past causing Claus to sigh as they had no reason to hide so furiously.

"Ugh! It was just Duster!" exclaimed Claus. "I think we need to find a new hiding space…"

"Yeah, but where?" asked Fuel.

"Hmmm…" hummed Claus as he put a finger to his chin. "What about somewhere in the village where someone wouldn't think to look?"

"sure, any places in particular?"

"Oh yes…" responded Claus.

Ness and I sat side by side for the next half an hour and hardly said a word, it wasn't out of spite or anything like that, we were just enjoying each other's company. And of course, to remain stealthy in a game of hide and seek, it is rather essential that one doesn't speak.

All the while, standing behind us in a not so stealthy manor was Kumatora and Paula who were ogling over how cute Ness and I are.

_"__If they were any cuter, I think I'd die!" _exclaimed Kumatora telepathically to Paula.

_"__But they're just sitting there… you think this is a cute moment?" _Questioned Paula.

_"__You so Naïve! You just don't understand shipping, like, at all!"_

_"__I do too!"_

_"__I'll believe that when I see the proof!"_

_"__Hey! Don't test me, I'm a Fujoshi too—"_

_"__Hunny! Your shota sensors are so off point, they think they're Yuri sensors!" _remarked Kumatora slyly.

_"__Yeeeeah? Well… um… your sensors… don't even work… HA!"_ remarked Paula in a pitiful attempt to one up Kumatora.

_"__You… you wanna give that another try?"_

_"__Noope!" _

_"__Your shipping game is just as weak as your come-back game…"_

_"__Okay, this is gettin' awfully personal!"_

_"__OH HUSH! I'm only telling the truth!" _said Kumatora.

_"__Wait a sec…" _mumbled Paula.

_"__What is it?"_

_"__How are our powers working here, they should be blocked by that thing, right?"_

_"__Huh! Damn prototypes, they never work like you want 'em to…"_

_"__What do you mean?"_

_"__Oh, I nicked these from the chimera lab, they weren't the finished version, so I wasn't sure if they'd work properly."_

_"__Well… They don't!"_

_"__Thank you for stating the obvious!"_

_"…"_

_"__You know that we both know you're there, right?" _asked Ness as he interrupted the psychic channel.

"Oh Ness! Um! We were just waiting for the perfect moment to… um… catch you!" protested Paula out loud.

"Yeah!" said Kumatora backing up the latter.

"Yeah… No." retorted Ness.

"You two were waiting for me and Ness to kiss!" I exclaimed, addressing the elephant in the room… or in the open cliffside.

The two fujoshies gulped as I had revealed their grand, evil plan… so to speak.

Ness and I innocently turned back around to watch the waves disappear into the horizon waiting for Kumatora to actually state that they had found us.

"Um… Oh!" mumbled Kumatora as she had finally realised. "Found you! HAHAHA!"

"Meh!" retorted Ness.

I then encouraged Ness to stand up and admit defeat, despite it being unfairly earned. The fujoshies asked Ness and I to help them look for the others but surely they couldn't have hidden that well. Instead, Ness and I headed back to my house to chill while the rest of the game played out.

After reaching Tazmily, me and Ness turned right to head down the dirt road that led to my house, we then approached the grass slope that would take one to the entrance of my house. Sitting in front of my house was a very familiar brown dog with a cowboy hat in his mouth.

"Hey! Who's dog is that?" asked Ness.

"Um… I think it's mine!" I responded uncertainly. "B… Boney?"

The brown Dog then started to wag it's tail and dropped the hat that was in it's mouth and came closer to Ness and I. in response, I then petted his head and rekindled the special bond I had with my dog.

"Woof! (WHAT UP BITCHES!? GUESS WHO'S BACK!)" cried Boney.

"Um… Lucas, did he always speak like that?" asked Ness nervously.

"No… No he did not…"

"Woof Woof! (Nah bitch, I've seen some shit, so I'm allowed to be like this!)" responded Boney.

"I'm suddenly really glad that only psychics can talk to animals…" I mumbled to Ness so that Boney couldn't here.

"Yeah, no kidding…" he echoed.

Their hour that they spent searching for a new hiding place was, shall we say, wasted. Claus had the 'brilliant' idea to hide in the well, only after Fuel had climbed in did he realise that it was not a very good idea.

"CLAUS! GET ME OUTTA HERE OH MY GOD! I'M GONNA DIE!" cried Fuel from the very bottom of the well that sat in the centre of the village.

"STOP PANICKING! I'LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE… maybe…" responded Claus.

"WAIT, DID YOU SAY MAYBE?!" yelled Fuel. "OH MY GOD, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET ME OUT, DO YOU?!"

"Well it's not my fault you climbed in before I could check if it was safe—"

"WHO ARE YOU? MY FATHER?" interjected Fuel. "I DON'T NEED YOU TO CHECK IF THINGS ARE SAFE, I'M NOT A BABY!"

"AND YET HERE YOU ARE CRYING AND THROWING A TANTRUM LIKE A BABY!" retorted Claus.

"OH YOU ARE SO DEAD WHEN I GET OUTTA HERE!"

"YEAH? LIKE YOU COULD LAY A HAND ON ME—"

"WHAT HAPPENED? I HEARD THE STABILITY OF AN OTP CRUMBLING!" yelled Kumatora as she rushed onto the scene.

"Oh… I may or may not have gotten Fuel stuck in the well…" told Claus.

"Alright, stand back…" Commanded Kumatora. "This requires a lady's touch…"

"Wait? You're a lady?" responded Claus.

All it took to make Claus fear Kumatora was a glare that could summon lightning if it wanted.

Kumatora then looked to the bottom of the well where she saw Fuel standing in a small pool of mineral water. It was fair to say that there was really no need in keeping this well as the thing had hardly any water in it as it is.

"HELP ME!" cried Fuel from the bottom of the well.

"Alright! Hold on!" said Kumatora as she paused to think about the best way to rescue Fuel. "I've got it!"

"What?" asked Claus nervously.

"We attach a bigger bucket and lower it down, Fuel gets in it and we pull him up!" said Kumatora displaying pride in her plan. "Claus! Go find a bucket big enough!"

"Um… okay!"

"Will this do?!" asked Paula as she held up a very large bucket causing Claus to look over in disbelief as she had completed his task in nearly no time at all.

"WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT!?" asked Claus angrily.

"Just over there…" said Paula as she pointed to the corner of a building.

"Ah! Perfect!" said Kumatora as she took the bucket from Paula's hands and attached it to the well.

Kumatora then lowered the bucket down to the bottom of the well were Fuel then carefully climbed in. Kumatora then tugged on the rope to pull Fuel back up… but, there was a slight problem.

"UGH!" grunted Kumatora as she pulled the rope with all her might.

"Why isn't he getting pulled up?" asked Paula.

"HE'S… TOO… HEAVY…" grunted Kumatora who was still pulling on the rope. "HELP… ME!"

Just as Kumatora had commanded, Paula and Claus took hold of the rope along with a few of the stronger residents of Tazmily who were watching the commotion unfold. Now they had more than enough man-power to pull Fuel back up.

Everyone who had hold of the rope waited until Kumatora gave the signal to pull Fuel up…

…

…

…

"NOW!" she yelled.

The rope was tugged so hard that the people holding the start of the rope fell over. From the well, almost as if he was shot out of a cannon, was Fuel who was propelled into the air by the fast-moving bucket and then landed on Claus's fallen body.

"OWW!" groaned Claus as Fuel's body landed on him.

Kumatora and Paula brushed themselves off while the stronger males who were standing at the end of the rope checked on Claus and Fuel who appeared to be hurt… they're fine, they're just wusses.

The group that now consisted of everyone including Poo, Jeff and Duster who had been found soon after the incident at the well, made their way back to my house to chill and talk about how that was the most intense game of hide and seek we had ever played.

The door swung open and through it stepped Kumatora, followed by Claus and Paula and then the others. They expected to find just me and Ness but found another little furry companion sitting by our feet.

"Lucas, Captain, did you steal someone's dog?" asked Poo.

"What? NO!" responded Ness.

"Yeah, he's my dog, Boney." I said filling the gap in the conversation.

"Oh… well he must be very well camouflaged with the furniture in here." Said Jeff.

"No, he's only just come back from… somewhere…" told Ness.

"Aww!" hummed Fuel. "You're a cute little furry aren't you?"

"Woof! (Yeah! And you're GAY!)" responded Boney. Luckily, Fuel couldn't understand him but the other psychics in the room as well as myself were giggling under our breath.

"Oh! I think I have just the thing for this little guy!" said Paula as she pulled out a stripy collar from her pocket.

She then tied it around Boney's neck and suddenly he was able to speak like a human without any need for telepathy. Isn't that just a little convenient.

"Hey Boney! Where's dad?" asked Claus excitedly.

"Yeah, about that, Your Dad's dead, my bad…" said Boney anticlimactically.

"Oh… Oh no… how unfortunate…!" I said sounding slightly sarcastic.

"At least try to show emotion!" said Claus angrily.

"OH NO! my dad is dead, I will never ever get over this—"

"mom…"

"AHHH! MY DAD IS DEAD! *Starts crying*"

"Sometimes he needs a little push!" said Claus with his arms on his hips in a way that suggested he was proud of himself.

"Well this is fun…" said Duster trying to fill the gap.

I soon got over my PTSD triggered crying and began to talk with Boney once more.

"Where have you actually been?" I asked curiously.

"Oh! Literally everywhere looking for Claus… Thanks for that BIATCH!" yelled Boney at Claus.

"Why I oughta!" mumbled Claus as he pumped his fist.

"Then we met some gross looking FAG—"

"*gasps* Boney! You can't say that!" yelled Kumatora.

"What? Freaky Alien Genotype?" asked Boney innocently.

"Oh, I thought you meant… carry on!"

"Anyway, yeah, some grey alien thing that asked us if we knew where we could find Osohe Castle"

"Wait, that sounds like Giegue!" said Jeff nervously.

"What's a Giegue?" asked Boney.

"Some alien that wants to destroy the world or some shit" added Claus.

I then looked over to Kumatora who had a face like thunder suggesting she knew what Giegue was looking for.

"What's the matter?" I asked Kumatora.

"I think Giegue is pulling all the needles!" she said nervously.

"For what?" asked Ness.

"Well he'd be able to control the dark dragon after it wakes up, he is powerful enough…" she told. "The question is, how many has he pulled?"

"How do we find out?" asked Poo.

"And what happens after they're all pulled?" added Jeff.

"Either the world is reborn from a pure heart making a wish to the dragon, or it is completely annihilated, never to be seen again!" told Kumatora ominously.

"I.. I think Giegue would want the second one…" said Paula in a very scared tone.

"Yeah me too!" said Boney in a not so scared tone, trying to play it off as cool.

We had finally discovered the tip of the iceberg that is Giegue's plan… BuT wHeN wIlL iT uNfOlD?


	25. Chapter 25: Show Me Your Poker Face!

_This chapter is still Lucas's POV and is more or less a filler chapter for fun, enjoy!_

_BTW, I actually don't know how poker works and neither does Lucas so he'll not know about anything which will make my life easier as he'll be like, I don't even know why I'm here, help me! Why couldn't we play go fish, I actually know Go Fish!_

The day seemed to have slipped away faster than you could say '_okey'_ and so we all displaced throughout my house taking part in different activities, Jeff was working on an invention of some kind, Poo was meditating in the front garden amongst the pretty flowers, Claus and Fuel had gone to the arcade because 'why not?' and Paula was up stairs trying out new hairstyles and painting her nails. The rest of us were in the living room playing a game I had never heard of before; Polka I think it was called… or was it poker?

Ness, Kumatora, Boney and I were crowded around the coffee table in the centre of the living room and were sitting on cushions that we had pulled off of the couch. We each had an assortment of cards from the deck and were playing for cookies… I didn't really understand the rules, so I just went with the flow… it appears that Mr. Author doesn't know what the rules are either, COME ON MAN! EVEN BONEY KNOWS THE RULES AND HE'S A DOG!

"Alright boys put up your steaks…" said Kumatora. "And No, Boney, the prize is not steak."

"Bitch, whatcha talking about, I'm a classy dog!" argued Boney. "I only eat the finest beef jerky that I find on the ground!"

"Well we aren't playing for Beef Jerky either!"

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" cried Boney.

"Yeah! We're playing for cookies!" added Ness.

"I'll eat them!" responded Boney eagerly.

"How do you not know that sugar is poisonous to dogs?" asked Kumatora suspiciously.

"Bitch! I'm a dog! Not a Biology teacher!"

"Can we get on with the game please!?" asked Ness as he slid a small stack of cookies to the middle.

"Yeah sure…" said Kumatora and Boney as they too slid over two stacks of cookies.

They then all looked in my direction as they waited for me to make my move, so I took 3 cookies off of my stack of 20 and pushed them over to the middle.

Kumatora then asked that those of us who wished to possibly win this round if you will would 'fold'. The only explanation I could draw from this term was that it meant show off your cards.

Boney placed his cards on the table, I wasn't sure if the cards he had were good in terms of winning, but he received what was in the middle of the table after Ness and Kumatora had folded their cards. The deck was shuffled again and a few more cards were passed out… the game then came to a grinding halt after Jeff came flying through the wall of the kitchen after some kind of weapon he was working on exploded.

"YOU DAMNED PIECE OF TRASH, I WILL MAKE YOU SUCCESSFULLY SHOOT PROTON TORPEDOES YET!" yelled Jeff as he stormed back into the back room where he was working.

"My… my wall!" I mumbled in shock that there was now a Jeff shaped hole in it.

"Don't sweat it Lucas! You're in a fan fic, your wall will be fixed by the morning!" said Kumatora.

"Okay, can we not do this agai—"

"Alright, WHO BROKE IT THIS TIME? WHO BROKE THE F**KING WALL?!" screamed Mr. Author in frustration.

"Jeff!" replied Boney.

"NO, NOT THAT ONE YOU F**KING MUTT!" Yelled Mr. Author. "THE FOURTH WALL! WHO BROKE THE FOURTH WALL?!"

"What's a fourth wall?" asked Boney.

"You're better off not knowing—" said Kumatora.

"WELL I KNOW IT WAS ONE OF YAS! DISGUSTANG!" replied Mr. Author. "SERIOUSLY! DO YOU DELIGHT IN MY SUFFERING?!"

"In what way are you suffering!?" I asked.

"BECAUSE I HAVE TO SPEND MY NIGHT FIXING THE WALL… AGAIN!... WHEN I SHOULD BE OUT PARTYING WITH MRS. AUTHOR!"

"You have a wife?" asked Kumatora.

"NO!"

"But you said—"

"ONE MORE FOURTH WALL BREAK AND IMA KILL OFF THE LOT OF YAS!" yelled Mr. Author. "AUTHOR OUT!"

And as quickly as it had appeared, his presence had vanished. Just pointing out that Mr. Author is basically a main character now, after all, he's been in it more that Porky.

***BEEP, BEEP***

"DAMN IT!" cried Claus as he smacked his fist against the brightly coloured arcade machine. "I lost again?"

Claus then reached into his pocket once again to pull out another 1 DP but found that his pockets were empty.

"Huh?" he said as he pulled out a button and some dryer lint from his short pocket. "Hey Fuel?"

"Yeah?" replied Fuel as his eyes remained fixated on the game he was playing.

"Can you float me like, 20 DP?"

"Uh, No!"

"Why not?" questioned Claus.

"Because I shouldn't have to pay for your losing streak to continue!" told Fuel. "go get some more money off one of the frogs!"

"UGH! Fine!" cried Claus as he dragged his feet out the door in search of a save frog.

Claus was marvelled by how beautiful a village can seem when it's night time. All of the street lamps were on and were glowing a lovely bright light, the buildings all had their lights on with the curtains drawn and the sky was clear showing a crescent moon surrounded by hundreds of stars that glowed from very far away.

It seemed that because it was night time, Claus was going to have a fairly hard time finding a save frog at this time—

***VROOM, BEEP, BEEP***

\- or maybe not.

"Hey! You!" Claus yelled to the save frog who was driving a little red Car. "Stop!"

Just as Claus had commanded, the save frog pulled over in his car and waited for the ginger to catch up.

"Need something?" asked the frog with his arm (or leg) hanging out of the side of the car.

"Yeah, can I draw out some DP please?" asked Claus.

"Sure you can!"

Claus then withdrew 50 DP from the frog's bank and let the frog get back to his business.

"Remember to save your game!" yelled the frog as he drove away.

"Save what game?" Claus questioned. "You can't save arcade games, stupid frog!"

The ginger boy then headed back into the arcade building.

The arcade was a fairly large building consisting of two floors and with each having a thick black carpet and blue stripy walls. There were many gaming machines scattered throughout the building and a couple of posters which all said the same thing, '_The Nintendo Entertainment system! Buy it now with your money!'_

The gaming machines were all vastly different from one another, there were no two same machines. The machine that Fuel was playing on had a game on it called 'Donkey Kong' and consisted of a strangely shaped man climbing a series of red beams to save a blonde woman from a giant ape. Another game was called 'Punch Out!" and was the game that Claus favoured in particular. The game was a simulation of a boxing tournament with the player taking the role of a boxer that has to go up against many opponents that are stronger than him. The game wasn't so hard that it couldn't be won, any skilled gamer would have been able to do it, not Claus though. Before a couple of days ago, Claus had no idea what a video game was or how to play them, at least now he was getting some practice in.

It had been an hour and our game of poker was still going on. Somehow, we went from having 80 cookies in play to now having 128 suggesting that someone had been adding cookies to their pile. From my understanding, you lose a game of poker when you completely run out of things to bet on, in this case, cookies.

Looking at my pile, I didn't know if had a slight lead on the others or not. Yes, my pile was bigger than the rest as I had put up less steaks, but I had hardly won anything. The last time I showed anyone my cards was about 15 minutes ago and nothing really happened, why couldn't we play Go Fish?

"Alright! I'm all in Bitches!" said Boney as he slid his remaining 11 cookies into the centre of the table.

"You know what, F*ck it!" yelled Kumatora. "I'm all in too!"

"Well if you're all in, I guess I should be too!" said Ness as he slid his rather hefty looking pile of cookies into the middle.

From the context, I guessed that 'All in' means you have gotten bored so you're just putting everything you have into the middle so you can get the game over with, something which I was eager to do.

"I'm all in too, then!" I said as I pushed my pile of cookies into the middle of the table.

Someone was about to be very lucky, for his own health, I had hoped it wasn't going to be Boney.

"Okay… Fold!" said Kumatora.

On cue, Boney smacked his cards down on the table revealing 3 cards that did not make a set which meant that Boney had lost.

"SON OF A MOTHER F**KER!" yelped Boney as he tried to cope with his hefty loss.

Kumatora then placed her cards down, she had a set that was considered to be basic, ergo, if someone had a better set such as all of the royals, she would then lose.

"Come to mama—" she whispered as she began to drag the cookies towards her.

"Not so fast!" said Ness as he began to glare at Kumatora and I. "Read 'em and weep!"

Ness then placed his card set on the table revealing that he had an almost complete set of royals. He removed Kumatora's hands from the pile and started moving them towards him.

"What do you have, Lucas?" asked Kumatora in a slightly sad tone.

"Yeah!" said Ness. "Show us your cards!"

I then placed my cards on the table revealing that I had a complete set of royals, I still had no idea if that was good.

"Does this mean anything?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah!" said Kumatora as she began to glare at Ness. "It means you won!"

She then removed Ness's hands from the pile of cookies and pushed them towards me. Ness was merely staring at the cookies and blinking occasionally and mumbling the words, 'I lost?'

Of course there was no way I could finish this huge pile of cookies on my own, so I shared my winnings with the poker players and had to exclude Boney for his own good, I then fetched him a chicken leg from the fridge, so everything worked out well in the end.

"Claus! Let's go!" cried Fuel in a very bored tone. "I'm outta money, let's go home!"

"Just hold on!" responded Claus.

"Why?"

"Because I'm actually on a winning streak and I really wanna make it to the end!" told Claus as he was mashing the buttons on the 'Punch Out!' game.

Fuel then grew even more intrigued and started to watch from just above Claus's shoulder.

The extra pressure from having someone watch you have a winning streak proved to be too much for Claus and he immediately lost.

Claus watched in horror as the pixilated letters that read 'Game Over!' began to appear across the screen of the game that he had worked so hard to set the record for.

"Claus? You alright?"

…

…

…

…

"Claus—"

"*starts crying* I LOST!... I LOST, I F**KING LOST!" cried Claus.

"well at least you made it this far!" said Fuel trying to reassure the latter.

"True… but fuel!" said Claus as he wiped the tear drops from his face. "I LOST!"

"yeah but you didn't lose straight away like you did to start with!"

"That's true…. But I lost!"

"Okay, seriously!" said Fuel in a sterner tone. "Get over it! You can always come back and try again whenever you feel like it, now come on, we're going home!"

Fuel then grabbed Claus by his collar and started dragging him out the door and towards the house once more.

Paula was in the upstairs bathroom painting her fingernails all different kinds of colours.

"I'll make this one, red, this one will be fuchsia, this one, hmmm… red wine!" said Paula to herself.

"You know they're all just different shades of red, right?" said an unknown male's voice.

"EEEEEEP!" screamed Paula as she took out a frying pan and lobbed it at the shower curtain as behind there was where the sound had originated from.

***CLANG* **

"OWIE! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" argued the unknown male.

"IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE HIT BY FRYING PANS, DON'T HIDE IN PEOPLE'S SHOWERS LIKE A PERV!" argued Paula. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

From behind the shower curtain emerged Ninten who was clutching a yellow canary in his hands.

"Hey! You're that kid from the karaoke night!" gasped Paula.

"Yes, I am!" responded Ninten.

"What are you doing here… in the shower?" questioned Paula.

"Oh! I was saving one of the canaries that has one of the eight melodies and I got transported here!"

"Is that the canary?"

"Yep!" replied Ninten as he began to inspect it. "And it looks delicious…"

"Wait? What?" questioned Paula.

"Oh! Nothing! Hehehe…" responded the black-haired child innocently.

Ness, Kumatora, Boney and I were eating our winnings and talking about how unlikely it was that I had won my first ever game of Poker. At the same time, Paula descended from the stairs with Ninten following behind closely.

"Oh! You're the one from the karaoke night!" said Ness.

"yeah!" Ninten responded.

"Why are you here?" asked Kumatora.

"I didn't get to meet everyone last time I was here!" told Ninten. "I thought I'd come back and see everyone! I even bought this canary!"

"Why did you bring a canary?" I asked curiously.

"I was holding it when I came here… and I'm real hungry…"

"if you're hungry, we have an unlimited fridge… help yourself!" said Kumatora.

"Do you have any canary?" asked Ninten innocently.

"What?" we all asked in unison.

"I mean chicken, do you have chicken?"

"Yup!" said Ness as he opened the Mr. Saturn Fridge revealing a whole chicken that had been cooked lovingly by the Saturns.

"Yummo!" mumbled Ninten as he slowly approached the fridge and picked up the chicken.

"This canary looks delicious!" said Boney as he stood looking at it and was licking his lips.

"BONEY! NO!" yelled Paula. "That canary is holding one of the eight melodies!"

"Meh!" responded the brown canine.

"Mmmm…" hummed Ninten after demolishing the chicken. "Yummy!"

The door then swung open and through it stepped Claus and Fuel, the former of whom stopped dead in his tracks after seeing Ninten standing in the living room.

_OMIGOSH, OMIGOSH! THAT SUPER DUPER HOTTIE IS BACK! Claus thought to himself._

Claus then began to sweat a little as Ninten batted an eyelash at the carrot topped boy. Fuel instantly noticed and began to get a little bit jealous.

"Oh! Hello!" said Ninten to the duo stood next to the door.

"hey!" said Fuel with a slightly aggravated tone.

"hi!" said Claus quietly.

"So are you two together because I need a new OTP to ship and I'm already shipping you two and if you're together, that idea is down the drain?" blurted Ninten.

"Y… Yes we are?" said Fuel as he wrapped his arm around Claus.

"HEY AUTHOR!" yelled Ninten.

"WHAT?!" Mr. Author yelled back.

"CAN YOU ADD SOME NEW MALE CHARACTERS SO I CAN SHIP A NEW OTP?"

"NO! I JUST ADDED YOU, THAT'S IT!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"THERE ARE NO MORE MALE CHARACTERS TO ADD… ACCEPT IT!"

"UH! WHAT ABOUT LOID?" asked Ninten.

"HE STRAIGHT!"

"true…"

"ANYWAYS, HOW DID YOU GET HERE?" asked Mr. Author. "I'M PRETTY SURE I CUT OFF YOUR CONNECTION TO THIS WORLD!"

"BITCH PLEASE, I BROKE THROUGH IT… EASY AS THE FOURTH—"

"DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE!"

Ninten simply gulped at Mr. Author's last command and heeded it to a great extent.

"NOW BE GONE, THOT!" yelled Mr. Author as Ninten began to disappear.

"I'll be back!" said Ninten as he disappeared completely.

"No… No he will not!" mumbled Mr. Author as his presence vanished.

We all stood dumbfounded as always, but hey, stuff like this happens like, everyday so I guess we should be used to this sort of thing… as strange as it may seem.

It soon turned midnight and all the street lamps turned off. The moon was the highest in the sky that it had been since the last full moon and the stars glowed as they were scattered throughout the sky like white glitter on black paper. The night seemed a little dead, like all the life had been drained out of the life forms that wander the nights looking for something to feed on. We should have saw this as a precursor to what was coming tomorrow… but we were none the wiser…


	26. Chapter 26: Truly Evil? Yep!

Strangely, the sky was perfectly clear this morning, hardly a cloud in the sky. The sun shined brightly, and the birds were chirping their beautiful song, the flowers appeared to be relishing in the sunshine much alike the residents of Tazmily Village that had been deprived sunshine for all the time that Giegue had been in our world.

I was the first to wake up this morning, I stepped outside of my house after observing the beautiful sunshine from my bedroom window and stood in the lush green grass among the flowers my mother cherished and the breath-taking ocean that crashed against the cliffs that were beneath my feet.

I let a slight sigh escape my lips as I took in the beauty of the morning.

The door atop the porch opened and through it stepped Ness who was barely comprehending the light of the morning as evident by his squinting eyes.

"Morning Lucas… Gah! It's so bright today!" he said.

"Moring Ness!" I returned and let out a giggle.

After making the slow decent down the rather small stair case, Ness put his arm around my shoulders and took in the mesmerising scenery letting out a slight sigh as he did so.

"Ah! It's so beautiful!" he said as his eyes widened to the magnificent sparkling ocean.

"It really is!" I added.

***CRASH***

"ERR—what was that?!" asked Ness concernedly.

"I don't know!" I answered. "We should go check!" I said as I pointed towards the front door.

Ness nodded in response and followed my lead.

I grabbed hold of the door knob and twisted it slowly, allowing it to open. After the door had cleared out sight, Ness and I caught sight of Poo being chased around the living room by Boney causing many items to be broken in their wake. Luckily, nothing important was broken.

Ness immediately jumped in and quickly prepared a PK Flash to temporarily blind Boney so he would stop chasing Poo for whatever reason.

"LOOK AWAY!" Ness yelled to Poo and me before he released his attack. "PK FLASH!"

The green ball of light exploded in a blinding flash of light that caused Boney to yelp.

I then grabbed Boney to get him to calm down and immediately noticed that his eyes were glowing a bright red and he was behaving like a dog, something Boney hadn't done for a long time. Of course he was still a dog and would often chase wild animals and what not, but he would never run around making woof noises or viciously attacking anyone for no reason like other dogs. I soon drew the conclusion that Giegue had taken control of Boney's mind.

Around the same time, Kumatora came in with a rolled-up magazine and asked if she needed to punish the dog… we all said no.

Suddenly, Boney stopped squirming and sat upright being completely still after sitting in his new position.

**"****BOW DOWN TO YOUR NEW DEITY, PUNY MORTALS!" **Said a strangely low and unknown voice from Boney's lips. **"BOW OR BE CONSUMED IN A FIERY INFERNO!"**

"Okay, I'm gonna take a guess and say this is Giegue!" said Poo nervously.

**"****YOU DARE SPEAK THE NAME OF YOUR GOD WITHOUT BOWING IN WORSHIP FIRST?!"**

"Yep!" said Kumatora. "It's Giegue!"

**"****Okay! Seriously! AM I BEING IGNORED?!"**

"Yes!" responded Ness. "Why do you call yourself a deity, Giegue?"

**"****YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS GOD!"**

"Okay, _God. _why do you call yourself a deity?"

**"****BECAUSE I'M OBVIOUSLY THE MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THIS PATHETIC WORLD, AM I NOT?"**

"isn't the dark Dragon more powerful?" I blurted and soon regretted the decision to do so.

**"****HEHEHEHEHE!"**

Suddenly, Giegue's presence left Boney and he returned to normal.

"What the f*** just happened?" asked Boney as he looked around and saw the destruction he had caused while Giegue made him his puppet.

"You don't remember?" asked Kumatora curiously.

"Nah!" responded the brown ball of fur. "I remember chasing Poo around and then poof, nothing!"

"Hmmm…" hummed Jeff as he came in and began to examine the dog. "I'd like to run some tests on his brain…"

Jeff then took the canine by his collar and dragged him into the back room that Jeff had been using as a laboratory. Jeff then denied the others of the group, including myself, entry to the room while the tests were running.

Jeff attached some weird kind of hat to Boney's head and then connected it to his Mac computer.

"Do not worry, you won't feel a thing—" said Jeff.

"Yeah, words that have calmed the nerves of hundreds of dogs before me…"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Jeff.

"UH! It's what people say before they shoot a dog right between his eyes!" told Boney.

"No! No, no, no! I'm not going to put you down!" said Jeff. "I'm going to scan your brain for residual psychic energy left over from Giegue's mind control!"

"Now let's say I understood what you just said, is this gonna take long?" asked Boney curiously.

"It shouldn't, now hold still!" told Jeff as he attached a cable to the hat that served as some kind of power source.

The hat then sprung to life as all the lights atop of it began to glow and made a whirring noise as they did so.

Like Jeff had predicted, Boney didn't feel a thing and the screen of the Mac filled with an image of Boney's brain that had a particular area of the brain illuminated with residual psychic energy.

"Interesting…" mumbled Jeff. "All of the residual energy from Giegue's mind control is being stored in the cerebellum and the amygdala…"

"Huh?" questioned Boney.

"The areas of the brain that control behaviour and emotional response." Told Jeff.

"Ah, okay!"

"That would explain why you're not in control of your body when he has control of your mind, because he is restricting your cerebellum from receiving the electrical impulse from your central nervous system…"

"…"

"Oh! I wonder if I can use this residual psychic energy to pin point Giegue's location…"

Jeff then started to type ferociously into his Mac and waited for the Wi-Fi to connect with a GPS location.

"Hmmm…" hummed Jeff.

"What is it?" asked Boney.

"It's saying that Giegue is in this house…"

Paula and I were in the kitchen making breakfast, she was naturally using the frying pan to cook the pancakes and I was using the grill to cook the bacon. We had previously sent Duster to buy some Maple Syrup from the shop in the village.

Suddenly, Jeff came bursting through the door to his lab with a worried look on his face.

"Guys!" he yelled. "We need to get out of here, NOW!"

"Why?" I asked sceptically.

"Because Giegue is—"

**"****RIGHT HERE!"**

In a blinding flash of light, Giegue appeared and was floating above the ground. He paused and then released a powerful burst of telekinetic energy that didn't destroy my house but had us all pinned against the wall leaving all of my furniture in the exact places they were in beforehand.

The force from Giegue's telekinesis slowly grew stronger causing us to yelp in pain.

**"****HEHE… LOOK AT YOU ALL… SO DAMN RIGHTEOUS UNTIL I HAVE YOU PINNED TO THE WALL LIKE THE HEAD OF A LION THAT ONE HANGS ON THE WALL TO CELEBRATE THEIR KILL—"**

Just then, Duster walked through the door and saw Giegue holding us all up with his mind. Duster thought fast and opened the syrup bottle and squirted it at Giegue's face.

**"****GAH!" **yelled Giegue as the sticky syrup got into his eyes.

Now that he was unable to focus, Giegue let us all down by accident. Immediately, Kumatora put her hands together and shot a PK Fire at Giegue, as he was knocked back, Paula threw the frying pan she had in her hands at Giegue making a clang sound as it impacted his head.

I used this opportunity to charge a PK Love alpha and let it pulsate over Giegue's body. He grunted as his body hit the floor. He soon stood up again and teleported away.

As we all fell to the floor, Poo's eyes started Glowing the strong, evil red that Boney's had been.

**"****DON'T THINK I CAN BE BEAT SO EASILY… YOU HAVE MERELY WON THE BATTLE… YOU HAVE YET TO WIN THE WAR…"**

Then the presence of the evil alien was gone, and Poo dropped to the floor as Giegue's interference had triggered a migraine. I'd guess that a mind so built on the foundations of meditation and PSI could easily be crumbled through the use of mind control.

The ground beneath our feet began to tremor ferociously and then stopped rather anticlimactically. Kumatora immediately stared to panic.

"OH S***!" remarked Kumatora.

"What is it?" asked Ness letting on that he suspected that Kumatora had an idea of some kind as to what caused the tremor.

"I… I think… I know what caused the tremor…" said Kumatora cryptically. Ness began to smirk as his suspicion was correct.

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" asked Boney.

"So… each time a needle is pulled, a tremor happens… when it's the sixth needle, the tremor is so big that it affects the whole of the island… when it's the seventh… that's it, the end…" told Kumatora.

"But… what do these needles have to do with the end of the world?" asked Duster.

"Oh right! You were unconscious when Giegue filled us all in…" giggled Kumatora. "Basically, the needles seal away the Dark Dragon and keep it asleep under the Nowhere Islands. When all seven needles are pulled, the dragon wakes up and whoever pulls the needles will pass on their heart to the dragon. If their heart is pure and good, the dragon will bring peace and prosperity, if their heart is evil like Giegue, the dragon will bring chaos and destruction until the entire world is completely destroyed!"

Duster looked on in horror at what Kumatora had just said.

"You okay Duster?" asked Poo.

"… I think I peed a little…" said Duster quietly.

"So what you are saying is Giegue has pulled Six of the needles and is perhaps moments away from pulling the seventh and given that he is evil, the world will surely be destroyed!" clarified Jeff.

"Yeah…" replied Kumatora.

"Well…" said Jeff. "We're right f***ed, aren't we?"

Not a single one of us knew what to say after hearing all of that… what could we say? 'Oh yeah, it's fine, we only caused some evil immortal alien thing to come to this world and give him the means to destroy it… Real clever plan!'

Of course, Giegue may have been evil but he wasn't crazy… he wouldn't destroy the world with him along with it unless he had something to gain from it and surely, if we could get to the last needle before Giegue, we could stop the world from being destroyed by passing our pure hearts onto the dragon… right?

The hustle and bustle of Tazmily was as normal. It seemed the tremor hadn't caused any kind of disruption. A couple of the residents were transporting some home-grown vegetables in a big wheel borough. Angie and Caroline were receiving a new order of ingredients for their bakery and a couple of the village kids were running around playing a game of tag.

Giegue then appeared in the centre of the town and was hovering above the well in which Fuel had previously gotten stuck.

**"****ATTENTION! PUNY HUMANS!" **Yelled Giegue as he began his not so formal address to the village. **"I AM GIEGUE AND I HOLD THE KEY TO THIS PATHETIC PLANET'S DESTRUCTION… IF YOU CATER TO MY EVERY NEED AND DO NOT MAKE ME ANGRY, I'LL REFRAIN FROM USING SAID KEY—"**

"AND WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE YOU!?" asked an angry resident of Tazmily.

Giegue smirked as he raised a single finger and shot a PK Beam from it causing the non-descript resident to fall to the floor and die.

**"****BECAUSE I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU COMBINED… IF ANYONE DARES TO CHALLENGE ME AGAIN, I WILL VAPORISE YOU ALL ALONG WITH THIS PUTRID LUMP OF SPACE ROCKS!"**

A medley of different reactions could be heard from the audience that Giegue had drawn, a few gasps, some distorted chatter and many tears of fear… a few of which were spilled for the fallen victim of Giegue's power.

**"****EVERYONE LISTEN CLOSELY… IF YOU WISH TO STAY ALIVE ALONG WITH THIS PLANET, YOU MUST SIMPLY DO EVERYTHING I SAY WITH NO QUESTIONS ASKED AND TO A SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND I WILL LET YOU LIVE… IF SO MUCH AS ONE OF YOU SPEAKS OUT OF TURN, NOT ONLY WILL I KILL YOU BUT I WILL WATCH WITH A BAG OF POPCORN AS THE FIERY DEPTHS OF HELL RISE UP TO CONSUME THIS ENTIRE PLANET ALONG WITH THE REST OF YOUR PATHETIC EXISTANCE… YOU MAY START APPEASING YOUR NEW DEITY BY BUILDING ME A LAVISHED THRONE TO SIT ON AND ADDRESSING ME AS GOD AND ONLY GOD! I WILL RETURN IN EXACTLY ONE HOUR, IF THESE TASKS HAVE NOT BEEN COMPLETE, I WILL SLAUGHTER EVERY SINGLE FIRST BORN CHILD IN THE VILLAGE WITHOUT REGARD FOR THEIR AGE… DO NOT KEEP ME WAITING!"**

Just as suddenly as he had appeared, Giegue vanished in a flash of light… It didn't take long for his cruel words to seep into the minds of the audience that Giegue had drawn and soon enough, they had all rushed off to appease their new God by building him a large throne. It became clear that Giegue intended to be treated as a God and wanted to rule like a king.

The residents of Tazmily had gotten the entire village's wealth in the form of every single item that was made of gold that they could find. The village had a carpenter's that was charged with the task of constructing the frame of the throne using all of the gold they could find; the tailor's had the job of creating soft cushions out of red velvet and embroiling the most royal looking pattern they could think of with a gold coloured thread that ran through the cushions in a very similar way that a tapestry would have.

The Carpenter had spent roughly twenty minutes constructing the golden frame for their new God's throne and ensured that the entire frame be made out of Gold. Many of the items that were donated by the village in the interest of preserving life by giving this new dictator a throne to sit on were items that one would consider to be family heirlooms and items of immense sentimental value such as jewellery and simple ornaments that may have been gifts from deceased family members.

This wasn't the most magnificent throne that one had ever seen but it was certainly awe inspiring. The entire frame was made out of a beautiful and shiny gold that looked like it was 24 carat. The cushions were made of a soft velvet material and had a beautiful silky gold lace that was woven into the fabric. The outer linings of the cushions were made up of a soft and fluffy white fur that coated the inner frame of the throne and looked very warm and appealing.

After a long hour of back-breaking work and cutting ties with the items that people may have cherished the most, Giegue's new throne was complete.

Giegue hadn't specified where he wanted the throne to be positioned, this was on purpose as he wanted to test the villager's loyalties after they had built the throne and to see if he could make them do as he asked.

After exactly one hour, Giegue reappeared in the centre of the village and was once again hovering above the well. He looked down upon the residents that trembled beneath his feet with an evil smirk on his face.

**"****WHERE IS MY NEW THRONE?!" **asked the menacing alien.

The Villagers of Tazmily were too scared to speak and so they all pointed behind Giegue and towards his impressive looking, shiny, new throne.

Giegue then floated through the air slowly towards his new throne.

**"****MARVELLOUS… HOWEVER, I'D RATHER HAVE MY THRONE AND A NEW SHRINE TO BE ERECTED ATOP THAT HILL JUST OVER THE BRIDGE!" **said Giegue as he pointed a finger at the retirement home and shot a powerful psychic attack at it causing the entire structure to be vaporised, luckily the building had been vacated for fumigation and the residents were staying in the Yado Inn.

Giegue then used his telekinesis to move the throne to the top of the hill and sat in his new throne with his eye on the village that he had just claimed as his own. This was only the tip of Giegue's plan.

We spent the morning cleaning up after Giegue's intrusion in my house and after about an hour of mopping up maple syrup that Duster had gotten all over the floor. Then we had a knock at the door.

***KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK***

I opened the door and found Nana panting heavily.

"Hey so there's probably something you should know…" she began. "some giant grey alien thing that wants to be called God has basically just held the entire village at gun point after murdering a resident and has pretty much enslaved the village and they're currently using the entire town's wealth to build him a throne so I thought I'd come and tell you because you and your friends took down the Pig Mask army so I thought you could take down this guy—"

"Yeah, sounds like Giegue!" cried Kumatora from inside the house.

"I don't know what a Giegue is, but this thing is really evil, and he scares me a lot! He said he'll be back in about an hour, he said that about half an hour ago."

"Okay, thank you for letting me know, Stay safe!" I responded as I closed the door in her face. "Everyone get ready for battle!"

As I commanded, we all got ready to fight. Paula was in the kitchen digging through one of the cupboards, she then grabbed hold of a frying pan and then held it up in the air.

"Hey Lucas?" she asked

"yeah?" I responded.

"can I borrow this?" she said while examining the frying pan closely.

"Yeah sure!" I said as I held up the same stick that I took with me to fight Porky.

I had a suspicion that I would never see that frying pan again but it's fine.

Poo tightened his belt and put his fingers to his head, let a little PSI pulsate and then swung the hand away. Jeff armed his gun, loaded it and then put it in his belt, he then went into the back room and retrieved a new weapon he had created over the past couple of nights. It appeared to be some kind of torpedo launcher that looked very powerful. Paula spun the frying pan around her finger and then put it away somewhere inexplicably. Kumatora then snapped her fingers and released a small burst of PK Fire and then it dissipated quickly. Duster then reattached his peg leg and stomped it against the floor a couple of times to secure it into place. Ness picked up his baseball bat and tapped it against his shoulder, then he spun his yo-yo around his finger. Claus and Fuel didn't really know what to do but they seemed ready for a fight, I'm not sure if they had any kind of combat skills despite Claus recently being the masked man. Boney barked a couple of times. I picked up the stick that I had bought with me previously to the fight and I snapped my fingers releasing a small burst of PSI.

We were ready for a fight.

**"****AH! I MUST SAY, RULING THIS PATHETIC WORLD IS ALMOST BETTER THAN KILLING SOMEONE!" **exclaimed Giegue as a villager lowered a grape into his mouth. **"ALTHOUGH, I SURE WOULD LIKE TO KILL SOMETHING, PERHAPS WE COULD GO HUNTING—"**

"THEN WHY DON'T YOU TRY US!?" yelled Kumatora fearlessly.

**"****YOU WANT ME…. TO TRY AND KILL YOU?" **Giegue questioned.

"N… No! fight us!" she clarified.

**"****Now, now, don't waste my time…" **Giegue told. **"YOU WERE HARDLY A MATCH FOR ME THE LAST TIME WE FOUGHT SO WHAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE THAT DOING THE SAME WOULD HAVE DIFFERENT RESULTS?"**

"Well… half of our team… isn't incapacitated…" said Paula trying to fill the awkward space.

Giegue smirked, **"LET'S FIX THAT, SHALL WE?" **

Giegue then levitated up out of his seat and began to float towards the group with an evil smirk on his face. He then landed roughly a metre away from where Kumatora stood as she was the one leading us into battle. The grey alien then held up a hand and pulsated a telekinetic shockwave from his very palm causing all ten of us to be sent flying to the bottom of the slope that used to lead to the retirement home but now leads to Giegue's throne.

Kumatora quickly stood up, brushed herself off and successfully launched a PK Ground from her hands. Giegue put up his shield and deflected every hit. Jeff then pulled out his torpedo launcher and fired it at the alien's shield that then ripped the shield apart and made it possible to attack.

Kumatora launched a PK Freeze omega and Giegue's body solidified temporarily.

"Jeff? How'd you do that?" asked Paula who was now standing up.

Jeff pushed his glasses up his face causing them to catch the light, "Science!" he responded.

Paula then put her hands together and yelled 'PK Fire' and a yellow lightning bolt shot towards Giegue and erupted into a tower of flames when it contacted the frozen body.

Duster took out a running bomb from his pocket and lobbed it at Giegue, Boney bit the frozen body and didn't cause any damage. Poo summoned all of his power and used a PK Star storm, suddenly hundreds of stars rained down from the sky and pummelled the alien encased in ice. The last star hit and Giegue was able to free himself from the ice he had been imprisoned in. His face looked angry as he held up his left arm and let a large amount of PSI energy collect there. He then threw it at the ground we stood on and it exploded knocking us all back in the process.

This time, Ness was the first to stand up as he was the furthest at the back. He lobbed his baseball bat at Giegue making a slight *thok* sound as it hit his head and then used it as a distraction to come around the side and start using a PSI Rockin'. Ness held his hands together for a second, charged the necessary energy and made an air guitar stance which then allowed brightly coloured shockwaves to escape and knocked back Giegue ever so slightly.

It was finally my turn to attack, so I placed both of my hands together and began to charge a bright white light… Giegue began to do the same except his energy was a dark purple colour with black spots in it. I was now in a race to pack as much power into this attack as I possibly could before Giegue finished his. The energy surging throughout my veins was not as powerful as I would have liked but as long as it could throw Giegue off his game, it would be enough.

I was nearing completion on this one attack against Giegue, but it seemed he was going to get there quicker than I was… I yelled 'cover me!' to the others who were now standing up and brushing themselves off so Kumatora and Paula used a PK Fire in perfect unison, Poo then used another PK Freeze, but it didn't freeze Giegue's body this time. Ness attacked with his baseball bat and hit Giegue a couple of times before retreating. Finally, my attack was ready.

"STAND BACK!" I yelled to the others as I knew that this would be my most powerful PK Love that I had ever used.

I then jumped up as I let the electrifying white energy consume Giegue causing him to be sent flying backwards landing behind his throne. We then saw a flash of light as Giegue disappeared and reappeared in front of us.

**"****YOU'RE ALL BEGGING TO DIE TODAY AREN'T YOU!?" **he yelled in extreme frustration. **"EXCEPT THOSE TWO, THEY HAVEN'T EVEN TRIED TO HIT ME YET!" **Added Giegue as he pointed at Claus and Fuel who were both hugging because they didn't know what else to do.

The two gulped out of fear.

Giegue then looked around at the anguished faces that surrounded him and smirked.

He raised one of his hands and summoned the energy that he had previously charged in our little race and pointed it at me…

**"****IF I CAN'T KILL YOU ALL… THEN ONE OF YOU WILL SUFFICE…" **he yelled as he launched a powerful PK Beam.

I stood looking at the swirling beam of dark energy that headed for the bulls-eye that Giegue had painted on my head… I was trapped in my own fear, like a rabbit caught in headlights. I knew my own death was coming and I couldn't do anything except stare at what would bring it.

Just out of the blue, about two or three seconds before the beam hit me, Duster jumped in front of it and took the full force of the attack. He fell to the ground and died.

I had just watched someone I cherished as a friend sacrifice himself so I could survive… how? How am I supposed to justify that he made the right call?

Over and over again, I keep leading people into battle, and they end up getting hurt, and this was the leader that Duster decided should be alive rather than himself? Did he make the wrong call?

I had a pit that was growing and growing in my stomach and it made me feel sick, I rushed over to Duster's body to see if he was even alive and to my disappointment, he wasn't. I felt the tears begin to stream down my face… but, I didn't have the right to cry over his body, after all, it is because of me that he is dead…


	27. Chapter 27: Revenge is best served hot?

I stood over Duster's lifeless body with tears filling my eyes. I couldn't help but stare as the others rushed over to myself and Duster's body, the overwhelming feeling of guilt and repent filling my brain as all I could think about was how he killed himself to save me…

How on earth is someone supposed to move on after something like that?

One life isn't worth another, each life is sacred… Duster gave his to save mine and yet I can't help but feel that they'd all be better off if I had died instead of Duster.

"DUSTER!" cried Kumatora as she ran to his body. "Duster, come on man… you're tougher than this…"

Paula then put her hand on Kumatora's shoulder and gently shook her head. Kumatora then started crying a little more than she had been into Duster's limp body.

Giegue stood smirking and holding back his laughter at the kill he had made. He made it abundantly clear that he was proud of this unexpected kill through his smug laughter.

Poo's face turned blood red, his fists clenched, and his eyes narrowed and became fixated on his target, Giegue. Using all of the power he could muster, Poo summoned the PSI in his body to form the strongest PK Star Storm the world had ever seen, if I was simply a bystander, I'd be terrified that I'd be hit by one of these gargantuan stars.

The stars raining down towards the battlefield were all white with a red tint and were much larger than the ones from the last Star Storm. They were about the same size as a mini van and were falling at an alarming speed. Giegue, who was somehow oblivious to the falling heavens raised his arm once more and picked a new target to kill.

His thin, grey arm was now pointed towards Jeff who gulped out of the understandable fear. Giegue paused to summon his power and then noticed the glow coming from the sky.

**"****WHA—WHAT IS THAT?!" **he exclaimed as he stood in awe of the plummeting stars. Giegue let his guard down in this time which is when Paula pulled a rope out of nowhere and tied it into a lasso and flung it around Giegue's body. She pulled it tight and Giegue's arms became trapped. **"WHAT THE—LET GO OF ME YOU LITTLE—"**

The humongous balls of burning gas pummelled the ground that we had used as a battlefield causing a giant explosion to erupt which caught some of the village in the fire, the buildings that were caught in the blast were torn apart like newspaper. Giegue's throne was completely incinerated and the hill we stood on was flattened like a pancake.

The blast took the form of a giant dome of white light before changing into fire and then smoke… it soon dissipated leaving the scorched remains of the buildings that were caught, the battlefield was once a hill but is now a crater and the bodies of us all that took part in the ensuing chaos laid scattered throughout the crater.

*Cough, cough*

"Ugh!" grunted Jeff as he slowly sat up from underneath the rubble. "Is everyone *coughs* okay? *cough, cough*"

Jeff looked around at the blackened bodies of his friends which included me. He gulped for a moment before seeing one of the bodies twitch. Summoning the remainder of his strength, Jeff started to crawl over to the body that twitched, this body being Claus's.

He put his hands on the ginger's shoulders and shook lightly.

"Claus? Are you alive?" asked Jeff as he stared at the face which then wrinkled in pain. Jeff then breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't the only survivor.

"err… I… Uh!..." mumbled Claus. Even though it wasn't a coherent sentence, it was at least confirmation that Claus was alive. Would be a little bit of a dick move if Mr. Author had killed him off after letting him be saved.

Another body came to as the dirt slipped off of her, it was Paula. She sat up with her hands rubbing her eyes and then looked around to find Jeff next to Claus. She was relieved to see that they were okay.

From the dust in the air that filled the crater, Paula and Jeff noticed that they could hear someone coughing. Jeff persisted on trying to wake Claus up, so he stayed by his side and Paula went to investigate.

Armed with nothing, Paula approached a small pile of rocks and debris from which the coughing could be heard. She weakly tried to lift the rocks off and after moving a few of the smaller ones, the rocks crumbled and rolled off of the body.

Looking at the dirtied face that lay before her, Paula discovered that it was Giegue and he had survived. In a blind fury of rage, Paula jumped on top of him and started mercilessly punching his stupid face repeatedly.

She spoke not a word until Jeff made the effort to remove her.

"NO, JEFF!" She protested. "YOU GOTTA LET ME END HIM—"

"LOOK AROUND!" Snapped Jeff. "BECAUSE OF HIM, OUR ENTIRE TEAM HAS BEEN ENDED AND THERES NOTHING WE CAN DO TO HELP THEM!"

Jeff then looked to the ground through his now cracked glasses.

"We should just give in while we still can…" he murmured as he looked around at his fallen comrades.

"You… don't really believe that, do you?" said Paula as she delivered another punch to the tyrant's face. "After everything we've accomplished together, you're just gonna throw in the towel?"

"What else is there to do now, Paula?" responded Jeff, his eyes now filling with sadness. "We're done for, without the others, we're never getting back home, and we never get to see our friends smile ever again!"

Jeff removed his shattered glasses and put a single hand over both of his eyes as he began to sniffle. Paula did the only thing she could and put her arm around his shoulders and tried her best to comfort him despite feeling the same.

"Killing him isn't going to bring them back…" he told, hoping that Paula would listen to him.

Someone else started to cough as more and more of the smoke cleared. Paula, who was feeling particularly more energetic than Jeff raced over to the scorched being.

The one coughing was Poo who laid in a pile of dirt that had the scorch marks around it that indicated that it was the origin point of the crater. Poo grunted and murmured a little, but most importantly he was alive.

At the same time, another person sprung up from the dirt, it was Fuel and he took a second to look around before processing what had happened. A look of panic suddenly overcame his face.

"Claus?! Where's Claus?!" he murmured.

Jeff had little energy to speak so he pointed to Claus's unconscious, but alive, body. Fuel desperately made his way towards him and gave him the biggest, tightest hug he could muster with what little energy he had.

Jeff and Paula looked to the sky with confirmation that they weren't the only survivors and started to check the bodies that they could see for pulses.

Paula found Kumatora's body and as she put her index and middle finger to her neck to see if she had a pulse, Kumatora's eyes slowly opened.

"Oh! Thank the gods that you're alive!" cried Paula. "I don't think I could have done the Fujoshi thing without ya!"

Kumatora giggled and then grunted in pain, it appeared that she had a broken rib.

Paula stayed by her side and made her as comfortable as she could.

Jeff found Boney's seared body, but he too was alive. The only ones left to find were Ness and me, but the group would have some trouble doing that.

Right before the explosion, Ness grabbed hold of me tightly to protect me and we were both propelled into the river and were dragged into some kind of underground cave that the river led to.

"uh!" grunted Ness as he started to sit upright and noticed the river flowing past us and how our bodies were only partially washed up on the bank inside the cave. "*cough, cough* Lucas?"

Ness then dragged himself out of the slow flowing water and came to where my body had washed up, I was a little further down stream and was completely unconscious.

The raven-haired hero lifted me up and out of the water with his hands and dragged me onto the cold ground so he could check I wasn't injured.

He noticed that I wasn't breathing correctly and then assumed that I had inhaled some water the same way he had before he expelled it from his lungs.

Ness thought fast and started to make light chest compressions to get my heart beating correctly again and then I started to cough and bought up the water in my lungs.

After about 10 seconds of violent projectile vomiting, I sat up and saw that Ness had come to my rescue.

I put a hand on his cheek and smiled, "Ness… you saved me!"

"It was nothing!" he responded, blushing a little. "You'd have done the same, wouldn't ya?"

I giggled at his question. From the opening in the cave, I caught a glimpse of smoke bellowing from somewhere on the island.

"Oh No!" I cried as I weakly stood up. "Ness! We need to get back to the others!"

"Oh crap!" he responded as he followed my lead. "How are we supposed to get out of this cave?"

I looked around, desperately hoping for some kind of exit or something to use as a raft. I then saw a small opening on the other side of the river, it looked small, but it was big enough for me and Ness to fit through surely.

I pointed it out to Ness who looked rather relieved to see an exit.

"How are we gonna get across the river?" he questioned.

"Hey! You remember what I showed you at the hot springs?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's do that now!" I exclaimed. "If we do a PSI jump, we can make it across the river!"

"Yeah, but are we fit to be using our powers right now?" Ness questioned. "We were just blown up!"

"What other choice do we have?" I interjected. "Ness, our friends need us, for all we know, Giegue is still alive and could be attacking them as we speak!"

"…"

"It's now or never!" I said, extending a hand towards Ness.

He nodded and eagerly took hold of my hand. I instructed him that we would jump on the count 3.

1…

2…

3…

Ness and I weakly sprinted across the short distance of land we had and concentrated all of the PSI we had left in our bodies to our feet and we were propelled through the air. Ness was a little further behind me as we flew and upon landing, Ness almost fell back into the river.

He stood leaning backwards off of the river bank with his arms moving in circular patterns. I grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him back towards me as hard as I could, luckily it was enough and neither of us fell into the river.

We cautiously approached the exit and made our escape.

***PUNCH, SMACK, PUNCH, PUNCH, SMAAAAASH***

Kumatora was furiously beating the S*** out of Giegue's weak and lifeless body… just to clarify, he is in fact alive, just unconscious. Despite the raw power of the attack, somehow, everyone survived.

Paula and Jeff made their best efforts to pull Kumatora off of Giegue, but it was for nought. Fuel was still by Claus's side and was crying into the latter's hands even though the former is fully aware that the ginger teenager is still alive.

Poo was still out for the count and Boney must have been hungry because he was licking the monk's face. None of this would be tolerated if they were still conscious.

Jeff and Paula encouraged Kumatora to use her powers of healing on the others to bring them back to a fair amount of strength, at least so they could make it to the hospital.

As Kumatora shared her healing light with everyone, she accidently slipped on a loose stone and shared the light with Giegue. Upon realising her dire mistake, she stopped immediately, and it appeared that she only healed a few of his external injuries without allowing him to become conscious.

She then went around the crater and healed everyone individually using life up alpha.

"Where are Ness and Lucas?" asked Paula worriedly as she searched the immediate vicinity of the crater looking for her OTP. "We still haven't found them and I'm getting very worried."

"They couldn't be far from here!" told Jeff optimistically, a complete juxtaposition from earlier. "They were caught in the same blast that we were."

"True…"

Paula then began to stare at the river in front of them suspiciously.

"What if they were knocked into the river?" she asked, her expression now more worried than ever.

"Then they would have washed up somewhere downstream…" said Jeff. A look of horror overcame him, and then a shudder as if a cold chill had run down his spine. "Downstream… it's the sea… what if they were washed into the sea?"

Kumatora approached the bespectacled boy and reassured them that they wouldn't have been carried into the sea because the river splits into many different little streams before reaching the sea and they are both too big to fit down them.

"I hope we find them soon—"

**"****AS DO I…" **

Giegue then sprung up from his slumber and started to float above the rest of them still in the crater.

**"****YOU ROTTEN BRATS, YOU'VE DONE IT NOW!" **he told with his tone more sinister than before. **"I'LL SEE TO IT THAT THE REST OF YOU PATHETIC WORMS SPEND THE REST OF YOUR TIME ON THIS PLANET IN A GRAVE!"**

To silence Giegue, Kumatora put her hands together in a gun shape and used her PK Fire Omega and shot a yellow lightning bolt that dashed across the crater and erupted into a powerful tower of flames when it touched Giegue.

The scorch marks that covered Giegue's body were now tripled and this only made him angrier.

**"****GAH!" **Cried the alien. **"THE F***ING NERVE! HOW DARE YOU SHOOT ME WITH A F***ING FIRE BALL WHEN I'M ON A ROLL!"**

"I AM NOT GOING TO APOLOGISE!" Kumatora protested. "YOU KILLED DUSTER AND TRIED TO KILL THE REST OF US!"

**"****I DIDN'T USE PK STAR STORM AND NEARLY CAUSE US ALL TO BE VAPORISED! IT'S YOUR LITTLE BALD FRIEND THAT SHOULD BE HELD ACOUNTABLE!"**

"SERIOUSLY!" Yelled Poo. "I. AM. NOT. BALD!"

**"****REGARDLESS, IT IS YOUR FAULT THAT YOU NEARLY KILLED EVERYONE AND—"**

A strange electrical current started to pass through Giegue's brain and caused him to yelp and fall to the floor.

Poo, Jeff, Claus, Kumatora and Fuel all looked to Paula who's eyes were glowing. Using his ability to read PSI, Poo identified the attack as PK Brain Shock, a powerful attack if ever there was one.

Paula's expression gradually grew to be a little sadistic as evident by the smirk on her face as the pain in Giegue's brain got worse and worse. Her smirk evolved into a complete grin with pointy little evil eyebrows

"PAULA!" yelled Kumatora. "STOP IT! You don't want to become like him!"

The glow in Paula's eyes ceased and the trauma in Giegue's brain stopped and blood began to stream out of his eyes like teardrops.

"Oh! I guess I got a little carried away!" remarked Paula innocently after looking at the mess she had made.

**"****THIS MAY COME AS A SHOCK TO YOU BUT IT IS EXTREMELY RUDE TO INTERUPT SOMEONE WHEN THEY ARE TALKING, IT IS EVEN MORE SO WHEN YOU INTERUPT THEM WITH BRAIN DAMAGE!"**

"You don't like it?" asked Jeff. "I thought you sadists get off on pain like that… I must be wrong… for the first time in my life…"

**"****YOU SMUG LITTLE NERD!" **Yelled Giegue frustratedly. **"IF YOU WEREN'T SO FUNNY TO LOOK AT, I'D END YOU IN A HEART BEAT, BUT EVEN ****_SADISTS _****NEED A GOOD LAUGH!"**

Jeff merely gulped.

"THAT WASN'T VERY NICE!" yelled Paula as she pulled out a frying pan (YES! ANOTHER FRYING PAN! FROM WHERE YOU ASK, I DO NOT KNOW!) and threw it at the alien making a clang noise as it hit his head. "NOW SAY SORRY!"

**"****I'm sorry you're a nerd—"**

"PROPERLY!" she yelled as she pulled out another, slightly smaller, frying pan and held it up like she was about to throw it.

**"****UGH! I'm sorry I called you a nerd!" **Giegue huffed a little and then put his hands on his hips. **"WAIT… WHY AM I LISTENING TO YOU—"**

"HEY GUYS! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Ness and I yelled in unison as we looked into the crater and found all our friends alive… and one other person alive.

_"__Perfect!" thought Giegue. "Just the distraction I need to make my cunning evil get away… OMIGISH I sound so evil I love It… I guess I haven't really ever had a thought process before, I should do it more often, I sound cool like this… anyways, onto teleporting away…"_

**"****BYE LOSERS—I mean acquaintances that I hate…" **said Giegue.

_"__Seriously Giegue!" he once again thought to himself. "I barely knew her but I'm pretty sure that mother taught me manors, even if I hate them… especially Paula… I should still use them!"_

In a blinding flash of light, Giegue disappeared without a trace… until he appeared midway in the sky and fell and crashed onto the Yado Inn destroying it in the process. We then saw another flash of light and assumed that he had finally gotten it right.

"So… that just happened…" said Paula trying to void the situation of awkwardness. "You're alive! YAY!"

"Yeah, we were washed up down stream in a cave!" I told trying to make it seem cooler than it was… it was just a cave, like… how cool can it be?

Jeff then turned to Paula and folded his arms, "Told you!" he said smugly.

I looked my friends up and down and noticed that they were all pitch black and covered in soot, so I proposed we go back to my house and use the showers to clean up. I then noticed that Claus was still unconscious.

"Claus!" I called out as I shoved Fuel out of the way and began to inspect my twin for injuries. "We need to get him to a hospital!"

"O K E Y" responded Ness who then looked puzzled by what had happened.

Ness, Poo, Fuel and Me each took a limb and started to carry Claus to the hospital, the most challenging part of this endeavour was climbing out of the crater, but we somehow managed it.

We scurried along in unison as fast as we could and made it to the hospital.

Fuel kicked the door down and barged his way in, "WE NEED A DOCTOR!" he yelled urgently.

The hospital ward was fairly empty, and two doctors were there tending to one barely dressed woman… what did Kumatora call it again… a destitute?

One of the doctors came rushing to our aid and took Claus into his care and gently placed him on the bed and began tending to his injuries. Fuel and I remained by his side and Ness and Poo explained what had happened to the other doctor.

The first doctor asked that we wait outside while they administered treatment, so all of us, except Fuel who was adamant about waiting in the waiting room until Claus's condition changes, went back to my house with the others and cleaned up and had a rest. Paula and Kumatora had already called dibs on the showers so we'd have to wait but at least we would get a rest.


	28. Chapter 28: Not Ready To Say Goodbye

Poo, Ness and I made our way back to my house leaving Fuel to accompany Claus in the hospital. Kumatora and Jeff were standing in the hallway of the back room where one of the showers was located. Neither one of them was fully dressed. They both wore nothing except for a towel that was wrapped around them. Kumatora's towel was wrapped around her chest and was big enough to cover her entire torso along with a portion of her thighs. Jeff's towel was wrapped around his waist and draped all the way down to his feet. The two were arguing about who deserved to use the shower more.

"SERIOUSLY! I'M PITCH BLACK AND COVERED IN SOOT AND I JUST WANT TO WASH UP, I'D ALSO LIKE THE WATER TO HEAL MY ACHING BACK AND SORE ARMS BUT WASHING IS ENOUGH—" argued Jeff.

"OH! I'M SORRY!" retaliated Kumatora. "DID YOU MAKE YOURSELF TIRED BY THINKING?!"

"AND WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

"IT MEANS THAT ME AND THE OTHER PSYCHICS ARE ON OUR FEET USING OUR POWERS WHICH TAKES A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF ENERGY AND YOU SIT THERE THINKING! I'M NOT EVEN SURE YOU SHOT YOUR STUPID GUN—"

"EXCUSE ME!?" responded Jeff in a high pitch sarcastic tone. "IF IT WASN'T FOR MY WEAPON, YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE EVEN GOT A HIT ON GIEGUE, ARE YOU FORGETTING THAT MY PHOTON TORPEDO CANNON (Still working on the name) CUT THROUGH GIEGUE'S SHEILD LIKE IT WAS PAPER!"

"AND ARE YOU FORGETTING THAT GIEGUE CAME CLOSE TO BEING DEAD THANKS TO US PSYCHICS?!"

"DO NOT BELITTLE MY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS GROUP! I AM THE ONE MAKING COOL WEAPONS AND ARMOUR, MEANWHILE, YOU ALL SIT THERE CHATTING ABOUT WHO'S POWERS ARE THE COOLEST!"

"*GASPS*"

"AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN KILL GIEGUE SO YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF!"

Kumatora then generated a small fireball and prepared to throw it at Jeff before Poo stepped in.

"Okay, okay… what is going on?" asked Poo whilst extending both of his arms out to separate the two.

The two then started hurling blame and insults from across the divide created by Poo and his arms and Ness and I turned to each other and ignored them.

"I swear, we need to build new showers!" said Ness.

I looked at the raven haired-hero and smiled.

Paula entered the living room clutching a photo frame.

"What's that?" I asked her.

"A photo of Duster… I think we should have a memorial for him…" she said quietly.

"Yeah…" said Ness in a lower, sadder tone. "It's only right we celebrate his heroism…"

I needed a second, I tried my very best to hold in the tears and stop myself from crying over Duster and I did, but the feelings of guilt, sadness and anger were eating me up inside. I knew that I was going to avenge my friend and I didn't care how many bodies I had to step over to get such vengeance.

Giegue had teleported to a void that existed outside the realm of reality. A purple space… it resembled the empty void of subspace emissary… wait what? Oh I can't say that because its in a different game? Well it's a little late for that.

He was tending to his wounds which were healing fast anyway but he wanted to speed up the process. He was also viewing the entire timeline so that he could muster an army which would be able to destroy his foes.

**"****hmm…" **Giegue hummed to himself. **"I could resurrect Porky from a different timeline in which he never finds out that I betrayed him… there's also him… but it may be too soon for that… unless… hehehe… yes…"**

Slowly, every wound on Giegue's body closed and healed… as soon as they did, Giegue warped right out of the void once more and went to summon his army.

We all stood out on the cliffs which doubled as my garden, that being me, Ness, Paula, Kumatora, Jeff, Poo, Fuel, Boney and old man Wess. We had a little wooden boat with a picture of Duster placed upon it. The boat was filled with flammable paper instead of Duster's body as his body was vaporised in the explosion.

We were all grieving so hard that none of us had the courage to say anything to honour his memory… he made the ultimate and most noble sacrifice… there was no amount of thanks that anyone person or group could give to match it.

The plan was that we would send the boat out into the sea and then shoot it with a PK Fire and the embers will carry him to the heavens above as his picture scatters with the wind. At least that way, we can share his heroism with the rest of the world.

Wess then put a hand on my shoulder and whispered to me, "you know, maybe he wasn't such a moron because he chose to save you before he thought about saving himself…"

"You raised him right!" I returned with a saddened smile. "You should be proud to call him your son…"

"I am… I just wish… that I could finally tell him…"

"Where ever he is now, I'm sure he is listening…"

Just as planned, the wind began to guide the boat out to sea and so those who could use PK Fire took their stance. On command, the yellow lightning bolts shot across the clear ocean and met with the boat where they then erupted into a tower of flames that moved elegantly along the water's surface.

We all looked to the horizon as the beacon of flames soon died out. It was extinguished as the sun started setting, one would say that it was a poetic ending to Duster's memorial.

Giegue had abandoned his foolish idea to resurrect Porky and instead, he had gone to a familiar setting. A dark purple cavern with lightning erupting all around. Anyone who knows the ending to Mother 3 knows where this is.

His eyes met with the seventh needle which was still lodged firmly in the ground. Of course this was the only one left to be pulled and indeed it would be.

Giegue placed his hands on the needle and pulled it out with extreme force as it usually is. A blinding flash of light erupted and before the strange gas could appear, Giegue's eyes started to glow as he filled the needle site with his PSI energy and froze the eruption in its tracks.

By doing this, Giegue took control of the Dark Dragon and now, the final phases of his evil plan could unfold…

The night drew in quickly and the air grew cold… there was an earie silence that deafened the Nowhere islands. Me and the group excluding Wess who had returned to the Yado Inn were sitting on the couch in silence, all afraid to utter a single word.

Suddenly, the phone began to ring for the first time in years. I nervously picked up the phone and listened to what the other person had to say.

…

…

…

"Who was it?" asked Ness curiously.

"It was the doctor…"

"is it about Claus?" asked Fuel nervously.

"Yeah… he's in a coma…" I responded now unsure of what to even do with my life.


	29. Chapter 29: An Honoured Sacrifice

My lips were trembling extortionately, my legs felt like jelly and my mind was racing. It was like I had lost him all over again. I know he is in a coma and is still alive but what if he doesn't wake up?

Fuel had darted out the door before anyone could even offer any condolences but who the f**k cares? Fuel is just Claus's boyfriend, I'm his brother.

"… Lucas?... is there anything we can do?" asked Kumatora sympathetically.

"Yeah…" I responded ominously.

"What is it?" asked Ness.

"Find Giegue so I can beat the f**k out of him!"

The others gasped for a minute in horror of what naughty word I had used, but before anyone could say anything the ground began to shake violently to the point where my house was beginning to collapse around us. We did the only thing we could and got out of there as quickly as we could and watched as the world around us trembled and shook.

We watched as the buildings including my house tumbled into the ocean off the surrounding cliffs and we dread to think what the death toll would be.

Kumatora put her hand to the ground to get a feel for the energy of the earth and then gasped in horror.

"What is it?!" we all asked in a panic.

"I think the final needle has been pulled!"

"then why aren't we all dead yet?" asked Poo.

"Giegue must be restricting the dragon somehow…" she began. "That means if we kill him… we all die…"

"That clever bastard!" cried Jeff.

"So where does that leave us?" asked Ness.

"We have to some how stop the dragon before we kill Giegue… but how?" said Kumatora.

"What if we pass our hearts onto the dragon?" asked Paula.

"It might be too late if the dragon has already woken up but if we can find a way to control Giegue's mind while he's controlling the dragon, it may be possible…" told Kumatora. "But we'll have to move fast and have to put our power together if we are to stand a chance of taking over a mind that powerful!"

"all we can do is try…" said Ness optimistically. "We're gonna have to find him first!"

"I believe I can help!" cried Jeff. "If Giegue pulled the last needle, there is going to be a huge energy spike in that area which I can use to find him!... except my computer was in the house… that is now a pile of rubble…"

Just when all seemed lost, Paula had an idea.

"What if we try and locate him using our psychic powers?" proposed Paula.

"Well it could work, but if Giegue knows we're looking for him like that, he could easily hide himself!" added Kumatora. "He could even do a brain shock from wherever he is if the channel is strong enough!"

"It's not a very scientific method!" said Jeff. "But it is better than standing around here like a bunch of idle clay men."

"I agree with Jeff, we should try it!" said Poo.

"I'm in too!" said Ness.

"Fine, I'll bow to social pressure, I'm in!"

"Alright, Lucas?" said Paula.

"Let's do it!" I cried.

My only reasoning for using this method over a safer method was that I'd be able to exact my revenge quicker than if I had to wait. I wasn't proud of it, but the thought that my friends could be hurt in this process never entered my mind, not even for a second.

Giegue was wrestling with the Dark Dragon's mighty power after awakening it and was struggling to keep it at bay while he took control of the sleeping giant underneath his very feet.

Every couple of seconds, Giegue's psychic grasp over the dragon would slip causing a slight tremor.

For now, everything in Giegue's plan was going off without a hitch until he felt the presence of another psychic… the presence of another 4 in fact!

**"****Damn… they found me too quickly…" **the tyrant said to himself. **"It's too soon! I need more time to finish my work on the dragon!" **

There was a sudden huge surge of psychic energy as Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, Kumatora, Boney and I all appeared in front of his very face. We were all armed and ready for battle as we could be considering that most of our weapons had been caught in the rubble of my house.

"Give it up Giegue!" commanded Ness. "You've got nowhere to run and no time to let go of the dragon!"

**"****oh really…" **scoffed Giegue. **"It seems you have a better grasp over my plan than I do…"**

"What do you mean?!" asked Jeff concernedly.

**"****well there is nothing to stop me from letting go of the dragon—"**

"Oh please!" cried Kumatora. "If that were true, you wouldn't be using so much power to control it!"

**"****On the contrary, Princess…" **responded Giegue menacingly. **"I do want the dragon to end everything, however, this is neither the time, nor the place in which I want that to happen… I need the dragon primed and ready for when that happens…"**

"So what's the point in waiting for it?" asked Poo.

**"****Because… this isn't the only world I want to destroy…"**

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM THE WORLD OF MY LITTLE PONY!" cried Jeff over-protectively.

"Jeff? Are you a 'brony'?" asked Paula curiously.

"Well… um… never mind…" the genius stuttered.

"DUST THIS BITCH!" cried Poo as he extended his hands and began a barrage of PK Fires… one may liken it to spamming an attack.

Soon, Paula and Kumatora joined in using the same attack and Giegue's skin began to sizzle and blister up. Much to our advantage, Giegue could not stray his focus and let the dragon go, not even for a second so he could not put up a psychic shield.

Finally, Ness, Jeff and I joined in with Ness using his PSI Rockin, Jeff using his laser pistol and me using my PK Love.

After taking this barrage of attack, Giegue began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" questioned Kumatora. "You're outnumbered and cornered and we're beating your ass!"

**"… ****am I though?" **questioned Giegue. He then looked over to the shadows from behind the hole where the needle was imprinted into the ground and through the darkness stepped a familiar figure. It was none other than the Masked Man… But that was impossible? The Masked Man is Claus and he's in a coma so this can't be him.

"I don't understand…" I mumbled. "We saved Claus from being the Masked Man… how is he here?!"

**"****Well Lucas…" **said the Tyrant ominously. **"This IS the Masked Man that we all know and love, however, he is from a different timeline in which you never save him… and he wasn't the only person I bought as backup!"**

On cue, another duo of unruly characters stepped out from the shadows and revealed themselves to us as Giegue's allies, however, it seemed that none of them were in control as all of their eyes were glowing red just like mine had done when I was being mind controlled.

Miracle Fassad hovered out of the shadows with his many brass instruments shimmering in the dim light and a younger Porky in a similar spider mech suit, this one seemed to be weaker but much more insane than the version of him that we had faced several weeks prior.

My lips began to quiver as I gazed at this dastardly trio like a fox caught in headlights… staring at my own demise and being powerless to stop it. Of course, even though Giegue had allies, he and them were still outnumbered by us… his pitiful team of four versus my team of seven. They won't stand a chance.

**"****Alright you pathetic children—" **cried Giegue.

**"****Um – I happen to be a child!" **yelled Porky at Giegue.

**"****Not now brat!" **responded the evil alien. **"ahem – I'll give you one final chance to surrender and I promise to make your deaths quick and painless in return… have you decided?"**

"Yeah, NO!" yelled Kumatora. "There is no way in hell we are going to back down!"

"Yeah!" Paula, Poo, Jeff, Ness and I backed her up.

**"****Well…" **smirked Giegue. **"Don't say I didn't warn you…"**

Giegue extended his arm with his index finger pointing outwards and as soon as he did, the glow from his ally's eyes strengthened and lost all control of their bodies, they couldn't even argue back if they tried.

The eye in Porky's spider mech started glowing and pulses of strange electrical energy started shooting from it, Masked Man fired his cannon and sent five glowing balls of energy our way and Fassad charged up his PK Fire omega.

We all thought quickly and took evasive manoeuvres, Kumatora did an army roll to avoid one of Masked Man's projectiles and then opened up a PSI magnet to absorb the energy pulse from Porky's spider mech.

Paula took out yet another frying pan and used it to deflect Masked Man's projectile back at him scorching the top of his helmet as it hit. Jeff used his laser gun, thing to counter Porky's energy pulse and then fired another couple of rounds at the brat.

Fassad's PK Fire was ready, and he fired it (hehehe… puns) as a shock wave that impacted Jeff, Paula and Poo who were deflecting other attacks, however, I had time to generate a shield Omega and protect as many as I could, those people being myself, Ness, Kumatora and Boney.

While this chaos of a match persisted, Giegue lurked in the shadows desperately finishing his work on the dark dragon, Fassad was charged with the job of protecting his master and did not move from in front of the main villain.

Poo and Masked Man had begun a martial arts type of fight and were using fist to fist combat instead of their weapons. Poo had special training as a prince for a particular type of martial arts which Masked Man seemed to be an expert in as well, of course this was only because Giegue had used his telepathy to give Masked Man the expertise to do so.

Paula and Kumatora were back to back and were standing up to Porky, Paula was using the frying pan as a shield for Porky's weapons and Kumatora was using her PSI to either counter act a weapon or make an assault on Porky, she was switching between her PK Ground and her PK Freeze while Paula kept using the frying pan.

Ness, Jeff and I were facing off against Fassad so we could get to Giegue, Fassad was alternating between the use of a shield or an offensive attack while Jeff kept on using his shield penetrator when necessary or was using his laser gun. Ness combat rolled from Fassad's left to his right and then used a powerful PK Flash to blind the bastard while I used this as an opportunity to charge and use a PK Love Omega which impacted the foe and sent him flying into Giegue causing the latter to loose both his balance and his concentration. As a result, the three allies reverted back to their previous state before Giegue got his hands on them and then Giegue regained control. Somehow, Giegue hadn't lost control of the dragon.

Now, more enraged than ever, Giegue concentrated a portion of his PSI to his fingertip and fired a powerful PK Beam that fired all the way across the battlefield and pierced through Poo's shoulder causing to yelp like a puppy… speaking of puppies, Boney was currently gnawing at Masked Man's feet but was proving to be a little ineffective. Oh! And Poo's injuries were not so severe that they he was going to die, however, he was in a lot of pain.

Paula got a little annoyed with the battle style they were partaking in, so she lobbed her frying pan at the spider mech, smashing the glass shield… I can only wonder what the hell that frying pan was made out of. Now that the structural integrity of the spider mech was compromised, Kumatora used a PK Ground that created a shockwave that started shaking the spider mech until it began to fall apart leaving the pilot vulnerable to an attack. Paula being Paula, picked up the same frying pan she used to damage Porky's shield and smacked him over the head causing him to pass out. Masked Man then started approaching the formidable duo and regained the use of his weapons. Using his sword, he generated a small bolt of lightning that impacted the floor right in front of the girls and separated the two. The robot then used his cannon to try and obliterate the duo who either used a shield or PSI magnet to protect themselves from the attack.

Masked Man's bullet of energy ricocheted off Paula's shield and then hit Ness in the back of the leg, it had lost a lot of power but still hurt a lot, much alike being shot with a paintball gun.

The dragon that slept deep underneath the nowhere islands had become conscious, however, his body was completely paralyzed by Giegue's mind control.

_"__WHO THE F**K DOES THAT LIP-DICK, HIPPY QUEER THINK HE IS!?" _the dragon thought to himself. _"I'm the f***ing dark dragon and I own his ass!" _

The dragon was eagerly fighting off Giegue's mind control, however, it appears that his efforts were for nought.

The fight with Giegue and his allies raged on and we were beginning to feel fatigued. Poo was still up and was skilfully using his PSI to attack the foes. Jeff kept using his laser gun and it proved to be an effective weapon at that. Paula kept on alternating between her frying pan and her PSI as a means of attacking whereas Kumatora was relying on her PSI to win her match. Ness was using his yo-yo like a pro and hardly broke a sweat while battling Fassad with ease, he kept switching between his yo-yo and his baseball bat and on occasion, he would use his PSI Rockin'. I was alternating between my stick from the garden and my PK Love, although the more I used it, the weaker I became, it was as if I was running out of points that I needed to use the attack… like power points?

Fassad let out a deafening battle cry which was just a loud trombone screech which was so loud and horrible that Ness and I has to cover our ears, when we did so, we let our guards down when Fassad used a melee attack and sent us both flying into the injured Poo. Kumatora then stepped up and used a PK Freeze beta which caused Fassad's entire body to solidify. She and Paula then took a second to use life up omega on their fallen team mates while Boney kept on gnawing at Masked Man's feet which the robot found to be very, very annoying.

Ness and I stumbled onto our feet whilst holding onto one another for balance with our clothes now looking a little torn up. Ness turned his head to the side and spat out a little blood.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

"Yeah Lucas, I'm fine…" he replied.

"Okay guys, we need a gay plan!" cried Paula.

"I'm sorry, did you say _gay plan_?" asked Kumatora.

"I meant game, you know how much yaoi means to me…" replied the ribbon wearer.

"Seriously!" I said getting the conversation back on topic. "What is the plan?"

"So we need to get through Fassad before we are able to get to Giegue?" clarified Jeff.

"That's right." Replied Ness.

"Well, how about I use my shield penetrator and then Kumatora and Poo can use a PK Star Storm and finish the bastard off, he's already weakened as it is."

"I'm happy to try…" said Poo. "But the problem is I don't think it will kill him straight away…"

"I know!" cried Kumatora. "Why don't I use my PK Ground after we get through his shield and then use a PK Star Storm, the constant bombardment of attacks will kill him for sure!"

"Ness and I will be on standby for our attacks if we need them… although I've had a little trouble keeping my strength up when using my PSI…" I added.

Paula then pulled out a strange looking cake from her many pockets and gave it to me.

"It's a magic tart! Eat it and it will restore your PSI" she said as I devoured it.

The flavours were so abstract and hard to describe but it was delicious at that.

I was now primed and ready to get back onto the battlefield.

Just before we all got into position to start fighting again, Masked Man summoned another lightning bolt and electrocuted the ground around us which caught Poo and Kumatora in it. The two of them fell to their knees, they soon stood up again, but they lost a lot of health in the process. Ness, Jeff and Paula stepped up to take on the Masked Man while I helped Poo and Kumatora regain some of their health by using Life Up omega on the two of them.

Jeff then tossed me his shield penetrator and told me to use it on Fassad before he thawed out of the ice, so I pulled the red trigger on the bottom of the gun barrel and a small electric beam fired out of the cannon and ripped Fassad's shield apart. Kumatora then summoned her strength and used a PK Ground which caused a repeating pulse attack that shattered the ice around Fassad but also dealt a great deal of damage. All that was left to do was finish him off with the PK Star Storms. Just as Poo stood up to join the pink princess in the star storm making, Masked Man zapped him with a lightning bolt and sent the prince flying backwards leaving Kumatora as the only one who could use a star storm. As her backup, I decided to join in and use a PK Love omega which wouldn't do as much damage as a star storm would have but would still do a considerable amount of damage.

Kumatora raised both her hands into the air and summoned all of her power, as soon as she did, she summoned a cluster of giant white stars which came raining down on Fassad.

Now that he was on the brink of death, I unleashed my PK Love omega onto him and finished him off.

Fassad's lifeless body soon flew off into the distance after being impacted with my powerful attack.

A sudden look of horror overcame Giegue which turned to relief as Masked Man stepped in to fill the role Fassad played in protecting Giegue. I panicked and looked around to find all my friends weakened and beaten by the Masked Man, this Masked Man was clearly stronger than the one we fought so long ago.

It was only me and Kumatora left in this fight who weren't hurt beyond being able to fight. I told her to go and heal the others which would leave me as the only one left to fight Masked Man…


	30. Chapter 30: Strong One, Masked Man

I stood barely two metres away from the new foe. The two of us locked eyes for a second before he removed his helmet showing off his bright orange hair that belonged to the person in this world that I love the most. I can't believe I was here again, fighting my own brother, unfortunately, it was a fight which needed to be fought, for the sake of the world. I couldn't be selfish now, too many people were relying on me.

"C-Can you speak?" I asked the Masked Man.

"Yes, I can…" he replied ominously.

"Why are you like this?" I questioned with a lump in my throat. "Why are you evil?"

"Why are you weak?" he responded savagely.

"what do you mean by weak?"

"I mean that you hold your feelings and emotions above power and control, that is what kept you from rising to your true potential…"

"And what was my true potential?"

"Your true potential was to be at my side leading our empire… I may have been turned into a robot, but I never forgot where my loyalty lied, with you, my brother…"

"But, you've killed people, you slaughtered them and called it mercy!" I protested.

"I anticipated that you would be resistant, however, in time, you would come to see the beauty of my plan…"

"What part about it was beautiful?"

"I wanted to make a world where you and I could finally be happy, with mom…" the Masked Man said in a sad tone. "Every time I pulled a needle, I was thinking only of what my heart desired most, to be happy with you and mom in a world we could call our own…"

"But… Mom would never have wanted this! She would never have wanted for you to lead a crusade to end the world, just to build a new one!"

"You don't know that… dead people do not want a thing!"

"I'm not so sure, you were dead, and you seemed to want a lot!"

"Well I can see now that my loyalty was misguided…" said the Masked Man as he eyed me up and down. "To think that a weakling like you would be able to lead an army at my side… for that, you'd have to be my equal and yet, that was a title you never once lived up to…"

"…"

"All the time when we were growing up, everyone in the village would know you as the weak one, the cry-baby…" told the robot. "Like I could share my throne with a pathetic excuse for a brother like you…."

That was the final straw, my brother would never say such a thing. I lost my mind by this point, I clenched my fist and then quickly opened them again and hit Masked Man with a PK Love alpha as a warning shot that knocked him onto his side. He looked even angrier as he stood up and locked eyes with me once more.

"You'll pay for that…" he said as he wiped a little blood away from his mouth.

His sword then extended from his left arm once more and he swung it at me, luckily I dodged it just in time and then combat rolled across the floor to get away. As I stood up, he raised his cannon and fired a couple of projectiles at me, I thought fast and produced a shield to protect myself. The balls of light then bounced off of my shield and off into the distance.

Masked Man shot his cannon once again only this time, I deflected them with my stick, one of them ricocheted and hit the Masked Man in the chest propelling him backwards. He quickly stood up and dusted himself off and began to charge up a PK Love omega. I thought fast and quickly put up a PSI Shield just as the PK Love omega was fully dispersed through the air and coming towards me.

The PSI waves were absorbed and destroyed by my shield before they could affect me, but as I stared at the bright white waves of light being absorbed into my purple shield, I watched Masked Man's yellow sword pierced the bubble of energy and stabbed me through the left side of my abdomen. I closed my eyes and put my hands on the wound after he had pulled out the sword and then let my body fall to the ground as I desperately tried to cope with the pain.

The robot slowly walked until he filled my vision completely, he bent down and kicked me in the head mumbling something as he did so but that was rendered mute by my fading consciousness… I was slipping away, fast…

…

…

…

…

"Lucas…"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Come on!..."

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Are you gonna sleep all day?"

…

…

…

…

"I made your favourite!... Omelettes!"

I came around in a world that looked all too familiar. I was back in the house… but it seemed younger… like I imagined it to be from before I could remember anything.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" said Hinawa jokingly.

"… Mom?" I mumbled. "is it really you?"

"Of course it is…" Hinawa giggled. "Now are you going to come and eat your omelettes, or do I have to feed them to Boney?"

"I'm getting up.." I said as I sat up and got out of bed.

Everything around me looked the same, except all of the damage and dust left by the years gone had been washed away. Even the chest of drawers looked brand new!

Every picture in a frame was pristine clean and the image on the other side of the glass was as clear as the day it was taken, almost as if the damage that time had did to them had been undone.

Hinawa looked at me and grinned as she eyed up my messy bed-head, she then picked up the comb from the dresser and made me stand in front of the mirror as she brushed my hair.

"So Lucas…" said Hinawa as she battled with my knotty hair. "Do you know why you're here?"

"… N-No…" I replied nervously.

"Because you are misguided… confused and I'm here to help you…"

"What am I confused about?"

"…. Your brother…"

Like a lightning bolt out of Masked Man's sword, it all came flooding back to me; the situation with Giegue, the on-going battle with Masked Man, my fallen friends…

"Wait a sec…" I began to panic. "How am I here?"

"This is not the afterlife… but it is not the physical world you are used to… This is the world between worlds, where restless spirits can help the ones they left behind…"

"So… you really are my mom…"

"Yes I am!" Hinawa smiled.

"Then how did I get here?"

"When you passed out in the fight, I bought your spirit here with me so I can help you… do not be alarmed, your body is still alive, just unconscious…" the elegant spirit began. "This is the only realm in which the dead can affect the physical world, be it through moving things, haunting castles, having a party with other dead people or in the ways I am doing now!"

"Then why help me… Wouldn't you rather I die and come be here with you?" I questioned.

"Not at all… I still love you and your brother dearly and miss you more than being alive, however, there are many things the world has to offer that you simply cannot experience when you pass on… as your mother, I would rather you live a rich life full of those experiences and make wonderful memories with the ones you love than be cursed to simply watch others do the same, even if it meant we would be apart."

"What's wrong then… what am I confused about?"

"You've spent the last minutes of your fight with the Masked Man internally questioning if what he says is true… the wanting to make a world for me and you two to live in together… It is true, however, your brother has been corrupted, while his intentions are pure, his heart is scarred and is being consumed by the bodies he stands behind… what was once a beautiful rose is now a wilted and dirty waste of potential… this had nothing to do with my death or anything you did, this was Porky's doing…" Hinawa rambled on. "It may be the hardest thing you ever had to do, but you need to set aside the fact that you are his brother and focus on vanquishing the evil within him!"

"But… I'm not strong enough for that. I couldn't do it the first time!" I whined.

"None of the past matters, and if you are ever in doubt, just remember the real Claus is resting in hospital and he will make a full recovery." Hinawa reassured me. "Now go my child… your destiny awaits—"

"WAIT MOM!" I called out as the world around me faded away. "I LOVE YOU!"

"I LOVE YOU TOO, MY SON!" the elegant spirit returned.

My spirit soon found it's way back to my body and I regained consciousness in the same place I had been knocked out. As I looked around and grasped my bearings, I saw Kumatora cowering in front of the Masked Man with the rest of my friends incapacitated. I summoned as much strength and courage as I could and hit the Masked Man with the most powerful PK Love I could muster.

The glowing white rays flew through the air and impacted Masked Man on his back causing him to be catapulted forward and landed flat on his face leaving Kumatora to get back to healing our friends.

He then stood up and angrily stared back at me, the source of the attack. To show him that I wasn't scared, I did the same and glared deep into his eyes.

"Hmmm…" the Masked Man hummed. "I was certain that you wouldn't be walking away!"

"That's just it!" I retorted. "I won't be going down without a fight!"

"Hehehe…" chuckled the cyborg. "You. Do. Not. Stand. A. Chance!"

"Hmmph!" I scoffed in frustration.

Masked Man jumped backwards about half a metre and then fired a couple of energy shots at me. I managed to doge a couple of the shots but one and said one impacted me in the shoulder making a minor burn on my skin. I shook it off and took out a pencil rocket, I lit the fuse and watched the firework shaped rocket zoom off towards the Masked Man and exploded making a loud 'kaboom' sound.

The smoke soon cleared revealing Masked Man lying face down on the ground seeming unconscious. His leg twitched and then his hands clawed at the purple dirt as he scurried to his feet.

There was a little dribble of blood streaming from Masked Man's mouth. He wiped it away with his hand and giggled.

"What's so funny?" I nervously asked Masked Man.

"You know… the you from my timeline was a lot like you, tougher than anyone gave him credit for and a worthy adversary at that." The cyborg began.

"So what?" I questioned.

"I watched the life drain from his eyes as I cut his throat!"

I gulped at that last remark. I knew he was cold-hearted in this state, but would he mercilessly kill his only brother?

"I-i-is that s-s-supposed to scare me?!" I stuttered.

"hehehe… I can hear it in your voice, that slight little quiver tells me everything I need to hear. You're more than scared, you're terrified!" The Masked Man chuckled. "You have that very same look in your eyes that the Lucas of my world had as I ran my knife across his neck! That look of utter terror and desperation!"

"Well it is not going to end the same!" I protested. "Someone as evil as you is never going to win!"

"Oh… but you see, I've already won—"

I angrily pushed my hands in front of me and expelled as much PSI as I could creating a large pulse that sent the Masked Man flying. As he stood up, his face screwed up in pain as he noticed that he completely broke his foot.

"AAAARG!" he yelled angrily. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS YOU LITTLE BASTARD!"

The Masked Man raised his sword into the air and let it charge up some electricity, the bolt then roared through the air and headed in my direction. I panicked and raised a PSI shield despite being unsure of how effective the shield would be as I wasn't certain if the lightning bolt was a PSI attack.

The lightning bolt impacted the shield and was then deflected to the roof of the cave where it exploded causing a large pile of rocks to fall and land on the Masked Man crushing every bone in his body.

From the pile of rubble, all that could be seen of the foe was his head.

He was still alive, but he wouldn't be for much longer, if any final words needed to be said, now was the time.

"*cough, cough* Well… who'd have thought you would be… victorious? *Cough, cough*" Masked Man said as he became short of breath.

"I'm sorry it ended like this, Claus…" I mumbled with sorrow.

"Hehehe… *cough, cough, cough* that's not… my name…"

Masked Man gave his last breath with his final word and the life washed away from his face. I fell to my knees and gazed dimly at the lifeless body before me. I couldn't help but stare at the bright orange locks and freckled face that belonged to my brother that now looked lifeless. I couldn't help but wonder, was this foreshadowing what was to come with the real Claus that was lying in hospital?


	31. Chapter 31: The Embodiment of Evil

At long last, nothing stood in the way of my long-anticipated vengeance for the countless lives lost at Giegue's whim. He was going to feel the same way that all of those people that he purged felt as their souls were ripped from their bodies.

Kumatora had finished reviving everyone using a mix of magic herbs and Life-Up omega and they were all up and ready to fight.

Paula looked around to see the bodies of Porky, Fassad and Masked Man all lying there, lifeless.

"So… We won?" she questioned trying to clarify the events that had taken place.

"Well I wouldn't say we won for certain…" blurted Jeff. "However, this is certainly a step in the right direction, all we have to do now is face Giegue."

"You say that like it's easy!" scoffed Poo.

"Well as long as we're together, we can do anything!" cried Paula.

"L A M E!" yelled Boney.

"Giegue hasn't yet noticed that his allies are down, this could mean that we can gain the upper hand with the element of surprise!" speculated Jeff.

"So do we actually have a plan of attack to use against him?" asked Ness.

"I think we should do more of what we have been…" the blonde genius added.

"Yeah, but, we've used that plan every time we've faced Giegue and he always escapes!" whined Kumatora.

"That is only because he is too powerful, but the plan we used WAS effective…" he rambled on. "Now that he cannot let his focus stray from the dragon, we will be able to finish him off!"

"But we need him alive so we can take over his mind and stop the dragon!" added Paula.

I looked down at the ground beneath my feet while the others discussed the plan of attack for Giegue, I looked back at Masked Man's lifeless body that was crushed under the weight of the rocks with tears in my eyes and then back at the Tyrant floating above the Needle site with his eyes closed, oblivious to all that was happening around him.

As I stared at the vicious beast that we had spent so long trying to stop, I began to think… What if Giegue wasn't so evil? What if he had a better nature we could appeal to?

His focus was so engrossed in the dragon that he did not feel my psychic presence enter his mind as I searched for something that he may have held on to that would let me think he wasn't so bad.

…

…

…

…

_"__Who is this?"_ I thought to myself… I saw in my mind's eye, a woman from earth with blonde hair that resembled the morning sun. She held a baby in her hands that was wrapped up in a light blue blanket. As the view moved closer and closer towards the baby's face, I could clearly see that this was a baby Giegue. This innocent creature knew nothing of the world around him except for the warmth his mother gave him. The blonde woman was singing in a beautiful soprano voice and was singing the same song that Ninten sang when he came to karaoke.

_Take a Melody…_

_Simple as can be…_

_Give it some words…_

_And sweet harmony._

_Raise your voices…_

_All day long now, love goes strong now…_

_Sing a melody of love…_

_Oh love!_

Giegue was giggling and fussing excitedly when the woman was singing the song. Upon the last line, the woman blessed the baby with a kiss on his chubby cheek.

The scene depicted turned to a more sinister looking atmosphere with the background turning into a stormy grey.

I could clearly see the same woman standing with both her arms extended outwards with tears running down her face, she did not have the baby in her arms…

_"__Of course…" _I thought. _"It all makes sense. Giegue is only evil because he lost his mother so early on…"_

"Guys!" I called out to the group who were still discussing the plan amongst themselves. "I have an idea!"

"What is it?" asked Jeff curiously.

"Giegue was taken away from his mother from a very early age—"

"So?" asked Kumatora coldly.

"Well there was a song she used to sing to him as a lullaby!" I explained. "If we sing it now, he might remember and then his mind might become vulnerable so we can take it over!"

"That sounds like it could work… but what's the song?" questioned Ness.

"The song that Ninten sang when he appeared at karaoke night…"

…

There was a pause of silence while everyone searched the deepest pits of their memory to find the lyrics, but not a single one of them could remember.

"I got nothing!" cried Paula.

"Same!" the others added.

"It's a good thing I do!" I said filling the gap in the conversation.

"Well go on!" prodded Kumatora. "Sing it!"

"Um… okay…"

I nervously approached the silent and oblivious villain floating above the small crater from which the needle sat.

"ahem – _Take a melody…_" I sang out which seemed to catch Giegue's attention as one of his ears pricked up. "_Simple as can be! Give it some words and sweet harmony!"_

Giegue's stare grew blank as a single teardrop rolled from his eye down his cheek.

"_Raise your voices… all day long now love grows strong now…"_ I sang as the memory of his mother singing that song flooded Giegue's mind. "_Sing a melody of love—"_

**_"_****_Oh love!" _**Giegue sang, finishing the lyric.

Giegue closed his eyes as the tears flooded his eyes and the memory filled his head… after a few seconds, Giegue's dim expression on his face slowly turned into a slight smile.

**"****I forgot I had that…" **the tyrant said appreciatingly.

"Your mother saw something in you…" I began, attempting to appeal to Giegue's better nature. "She didn't see a tyrant, nor a murderer… she saw an innocent being that knew nothing except love…"

**"****If you think that child within me still exists, then you are just as foolish as her!" **

Giegue's eyes began to glow intensely, the colour being red and the same shade as blood.

Just as they did, the ground beneath our feet began to tremble and shake causing the cave atop us to start crumbling. Large boulders from the roof of the cave began to fall and scatter all around us.

"Ness!" cried Kumatora nervously.

"Yup!" he responded as we all huddled around him and waited for him to teleport us out of there.

The psychic energy began to build up and a small bubble of blue light formed around us as the energy spiked and poof! We were gone!

**"****HA-HA-HA…. HA-HA-HA-HA-HA" **Cackled Giegue as the cave around him was falling. **"THERE IS NOWHERE FOR YOU TO RUN… I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL END YOU!" **

We reappeared atop a cliff side near Tazmily village, the ground beneath us persisted in quaking. Slowly, the ground around us was being ripped apart by the dragon's mighty power.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Cried Paula she and the others were becoming increasingly panicky.

Everyone had to yell as the earthquakes were so loud that we couldn't hear each other at a normal volume.

"I DON'T KNOW!" added Kumatora. "GIEGUE DIDN'T LET THE DRAGON GO BECAUSE WE'D ALL BE DEAD BY NOW… THIS IS SOMETHING ELSE!"

"WE NEED TO FIND SOME SHELTER!" yelled Jeff. "IF WE DON'T, WE'LL BE KILLED IN THIS EARTHQUAKE!"

We all scoured the nearby area to find anywhere we could use as shelter… The closest thing was the church.

The group and I desperately sprinted across the unstable terrain to find a majority of the stone structure still intact, all except part of the roof which was more than enough.

We cowered underneath the stone roof watching the world fade until something ungodly appeared in the sky within seconds.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" Cried Poo hysterically.

It was the dark dragon, floating in the sky, his gargantuan eyes glowing a blood red, his almighty roar was deafening, as if a super-volcano had erupted nearby.

Giegue then teleported above the church with a psychopathic grin on his face.

**"****ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL?!" **he yelled at us. **"THE CLIMAX OF MY PLAN, FINALLY UNFOLDING AFTER WEEKS OF ANTICIPATION!... WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU ALL? APPLAUD ME GOD DAMNIT!"**

We all remained silent as the alien proceeded to glare at us, evilly.

**"****WELL IT ISN'T IMPORTANT ANYWAY… IN A MATTER OF MINUTES, YOU'LL ALL CEASE TO EXIST!"**

With that cryptic remark, Giegue and the Dark Dragon disappeared leaving the restless world to calm down.

"What do you think he meant by that?" asked Paula.

As Paula finished her sentence, everyone faded away, as if they had never existed in the first place.

I began to panic as I desperately looked around in a futile attempt to find my friends… until I started disappearing…

Now there was nothing to stand in the way of Giegue…


	32. Chapter 32: I believe in you!

_This chapter will be told from a 3__rd__person point of view because all of the main characters are basically dead, sorry 'bout that :(_

_Wait? If they were removed from the timeline, they technically can't be dead because they were never alive to begin with… UGH! All this thinking is giving me a headache!_

Giegue was standing atop a mountain peak in the middle of nowhere with an evil smirk on his face letting his thoughts run rapid.

_"__That was almost too easy… and everything went according to plan! I would celebrate but there is a world that is in need of my enslaving…" _the heartless tyrant thought to himself.

Giegue had warped to the same world that the original story of EarthBound beginnings takes place in, with Ninten, Ana and Loid.

The mountain on which he was standing on was Itoi Mountain.

_"__BREAKING NEWS!" cried an on the air reporter standing in the middle of the city centre. "WHAT IS PERHAPS THE MOST UNGODLY CREATURE I HAVE EVER SEEN HAS EMERGED IN THE SKY, IT APPEARS TO BE SOME KIND OF DRAGON. I URGE ALL OF OUR VIEWERS TO PANIC, WE ARE ALL GOING TO—"_

_"__Oh! Looks like we 'lost' the signal" said the anchor-man. "Well anyway, do not panic! The authorities have begun to deal with the situation!"_

_*camera pans to a view of some army general surrounded by hundreds of soldiers and tanks*_

_"__WHAT ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" The army general asked the dark dragon using a megaphone. "WHY HAVE YOU COME TO OUR PLANET?"_

_"__SIR! IT APPEARS TO BE UNRESPONSIVE!" Cried an unspecified soldier._

_"__IT MUST BE DYING OR SOMETHING!" the general added. "CALL A PARAMEDIC!"_

_"__SIR! I DON'T THINK A PARAMEDIC WILL DO VERY MUCH!"_

_"__OPEN FIRE!" _

_As the general commanded, the tanks all launched some torpedoes from their cannons and sent them flying at the dark dragon. Each missile came into contact with a powerful shield and then disappeared, they must have been absorbed by the shield and then destroyed._

_The dragon then let out a mighty roar and knocked every tank flying into the distance, presumably killing everyone there._

_*camera pans back to the newsroom*_

_"__I'm sure they're fine…" the anchor-man nervously reassured the viewers. "Well we have an unexpected guest with us today, the one who claims to be responsible for the utterly terrifying monster in the sky…"_

_*The camera pans to a wider view to reveal Giegue sitting beside the anchor-man on a swivel chair*_

_"__So, Giegue was it, what exactly are you?"_

_"__I am an alien of a race which used to frequent your planet and I hold the key to your planet's destruction!" Giegue told with a psychopathic grin. "If the world's governments do not give me exactly what I want, all I have to do is tell that thing in the sky to wipe you all out like drowning an ant hill!"_

_"__Well isn't that just lovely… we hope you have enjoyed the news, tune in tomorrow at 5PM again for all of your updates and I think I speak for all of us when I say I sincerely hope we are all still alive! Good Night!"_

The person watching the news on this TV was none other than Ninten, however, it had been a few years and Ninten was now 15.

"ANA! ANA!" cried Ninten. "A N A!"

"WHAT IS IT!?" Ana answered angrily.

"Giegue's back!" the Oreo lover said coldly.

"Oh s**t!" Ana said, now panicking a little. "GET LOID ON THE PHONE!"

A random trashcan started to wobble about as a phone from within it rung out. The lid of the trashcan popped off and from the can emerged Loid who put the ringing phone to his ear.

"Yeah?" Loid said in a monotonal voice.

"It's Ninten, Giegue's back!" Ninten said on the other end of the phone. "Come over! Now!"

"I'm on my way!" The trash child responded.

Giegue was floating above the city centre with an army with their shots lined up on Giegue's chest.

The soldiers fired a couple of rounds at the alien which all ricocheted off his shield, Giegue's eyes glowed a little brighter as he waved his hand and sent out a powerful shockwave which knocked every soldier on their ass.

**"****AT LEAST MAKE IT A CHALLENGE FOR ME!" **Giegue chuckled.

"Sure!" said Ninten who was sitting on a rooftop with one of his legs crossed over the other.

**"****Thank you!" **The alien responded… Giegue then paused as he looked back to see the familiar face staring at him. **"Y-You!" **

"Yeah?"

**"****How did I forget to erase you?!"**

"The hell did you mean by that?!" Ninten questioned. He then opened a psychic channel and read Giegue's mind and to his horror, the red capped boy watched the group he had become acquainted with be erased from the timeline one by one, all except for Claus because Claus didn't really pose a threat anyway. "YOU KILLED THEM!?"

**"****That's right…" **Giegue smirked. **"I erased them from the timeline, so I'd be able to do whatever I wanted with no-one getting in my way!"**

"Well that is very wrong!" scolded Ana who was sitting on another rooftop doing her nails.

**"****Who the f**k made you queen?" **Giegue retorted.

"Also, another question, who are we talking about?" the pig tailed girl asked.

**"****Frankly, it is none of your concern…" **Giegue added seeming a little frustrated. **"All you need to know is that the ones I erased from the timeline were the only people to exist that stood a chance of defeating me, now that they are no more, you couldn't possibly hope to defeat me or my new friend!" **The alien rambled on as he looked to the sky to see the dark Dragon waiting there patiently.

"Well you must have miscounted because I'm fairly certain we defeated you once before—" said Ninten as he was interrupted.

**"****Please! All you did was put me to sleep with your boring lullaby…" **the alien mocked. **"The same thing could have happened from watching a child's cartoon, you didn't exactly accomplish anything!"**

"Well… we are a lot stronger now!" cried Ana.

"And I am smarter because that is the only attribute I bring to this team." Loid said in a dim tone. "I have even perfected a device which could travel through time, which is both convenient and irrelevant!"

"All fourth wall breaks aside, how exactly did you erase everyone?" asked Ninten.

**"****Well it didn't take much to end those pathetic cowards, all I did was travel back in time to the moment they were born, use a quick splash of magic and cause a still-birth and no-one was none the wiser because I was invisible the entire time."**

"Buuuuuuuuuut… all of their births are in the future?" Ninten questioned.

**"****Yeah? So?"**

"Then why did you come back to this time?" asked the red-capped-boy took out an Oreo and ate it.

"Yeah, wouldn't that just undo all the damage you caused?" added Ana.

"And wouldn't it cause irreparable damage to the space-time continuum which could result in the very fabric of space being torn apart causing all of our deaths?" Loid asked.

**"****That is why I came back here… by coming back here after instilling the curse of the still-birth, I have let the timeline cement in its new position as time catches up with it so there won't be a collapse of space and time, I may be evil, but I am not insane."**

"How did you know it would stop reality from imploding?" said Loid as he took off his glasses, cleaned them and then put them back on.

**"****Well I—" **Said Giegue as he paused to think. **"Huh? How did I know that?"**

"Well it doesn't matter!" cried Ninten. "We are gonna defeat you once and for all!"

**"****Coming from the one with no offensive—"**

As Giegue went to finish his sentence, a powerful and familiar looking lightning bolt was shot at him and erupted into a pillar of flames sending Giegue crashing onto the ground he floated above.

**"****OKAY!" **the alien yelled angrily. **"WHO HAS THE BALLS!?"**

"That would be me!" replied Ana smugly. "And I do not care for your tone!"

"My kaboom bazooka that I have been working on in secret for the past year is now complete…" added Loid in a flat and monotonal voice. "I will now test that it works!"

Loid then aimed the kaboom bazooka at Giegue and took a shot releasing a red rocket that appeared to be glowing with an intense amount of energy that created a blinding sphere of light when it hit Giegue.

"Yay.." Loid said in a monotonal voice which didn't really exclaim how happy he was but, hey. "My bazooka is a success!"

**"****This crap in which you keep interrupting me is getting very old and really annoying!" **Growled Giegue as he sent a glare at the trio. The tyrant raised a hand and released a powerful surge of energy which sent Ana, Loid and Ninten flying through the air with each of them landing in a different spot, in both space and time.

Ninten had landed in a strange looking world, it almost looked prehistoric. The island he was on was big and yet it was so barren with the only life on the island being animals that Ninten had never seen before, if they weren't at the ruined zoo, Ninten had no idea as to what it was.

"Where am I?" he wondered to himself as he looked around.

As the red capped boy looked around, he could see a small pillar of steam arising from somewhere, so he did the sensible thing and went closer to get a better look.

Upon being a metre away from the source of the steam, he realised that it was a hot spring and so he did yet another sensible thing and took a dip.

…

…

…

Ninten had been lying in the hot bath for roughly ten minutes before an odd character appeared from nowhere to confront the boy.

"What are you doin' in my hot spring *giggle, giggle*?" asked the strange character.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Ninten pleaded. "I didn't realise it belonged to someone! Honest!"

"Its fine so long as you tell me what someone as young as you is doin' out here on your own!"

"Well…" said Ninten as he took a breath. "Me and my friends were battling this alien thing that wants to enslave my world and then he shot us with some energy beam or something and sent us flying and he must have knocked me out or something because when I woke up, I was in the middle of this forest and I could see the steam coming out of the hot spring and I got curious so I came closer and found it was a hot spring and I wanted to take a dip so that's what I did and here we are!" he rambled as he pulled out his inhaler from his trouser pocket which was at the side of the hot spring and took a deep breath.

"Really *giggle*?" the odd character postulated. "That's quite a story!"

"Yeah!"

"Well my house is just over there… *giggle, giggle*" the strange person said. "Would you maybe want to come back there and have some special coffee that I got off of a wonderful race called Mr Saturns?"

"Sure!" Ninten replied. "I'm Ninten by the way!"

"It's nice to meet you, I am Aeolia!"

"That's a hard name to say, can I just call you—"

"No you cannot *giggle, giggle*!" Aeolia interrupted.

"Oh alright…" Ninten mumbled as he and the Magypsy walked along the pink stone pathway to the seashell house waiting in the centre of the lake.

Meanwhile, Ana had found herself in a busy little town which had everything from a hospital to a flea market in it. She was looking around a little nervously and saw an odd-looking building which said 'Polestar Academy' on it which had Ana drawn in for some reason.

Ana knocked on the door of the building when a blonde lady with a large belly bump opened the door.

"Yes?" asked the lady.

"Hello, I'm Ana and I was wondering if you could tell me where I am!"

"Aww, did you get separated from your mom and dad?" the lady asked in a little bit of a condescending tone but nonetheless, Ana shrugged it off.

"Yeah! Something like that at least!"

"Well my dear, you are in Twoson, a cute little town which is south of Onett!" the lady responded.

"I've never heard of it! Not even once!" Ana said quietly. "What country is this?"

"Eagleland!" the lady replied. "How do you not know what country you live in?"

"I… err… am not from around here… yeah!" the pig-tailed princess stuttered.

"Well I could use some company if you want to wait here for your parents, since the baby is on the way, my husband has been working extra hard and I barely see him!"

"You wouldn't mind?" Ana asked.

"Not at all, we can have some tea and cookies if you'd like!"

"Sounds lovely!"

Ana accepted the woman's offer and entered the house. There was a reason the trio had been scattered through time and space and that reason you will figure out soon enough… if you haven't already.

Loid had ended up in a very large garbage bin and emerged with a banana skin on his head.

"Well this was unfortunate!" Loid exclaimed in his usual flat voice.

"What are you doing in there?!" yelled a police officer. "You better not be smuggling drugs in the garbage!"

"I am a child with a banana peel on my head, is that what a drug smuggler looks like in this world?"

Loid looked around to see a multi-coloured sign which read 'Onett' so at least Loid knew where he was, just not the year.

A blonde lady with a man was walking by with a white dog trailing behind them. The woman was also pregnant. Hint, hint!

"Officer stop harassing the kids!" cried the man.

"I will harass whoever I feel is a suspect, not that it is a concern of yours!" retorted the police officer.

Loid facepalmed.

"This coffee tastes funny!" whined Ninten.

"That would be the magic!" Aeolia explained. "If it's that bad, pinch your nose and down it *giggle, giggle*"

"I'll have to pass for now then…" added Ninten as he set down the cup.

"So, you are very clearly in the wrong place *giggle*" Blurted the Magypsy. "Humans aren't supposed to find their way to these islands for another couple of centuries"

"Oh!" Ninten postulated. "I must have time traveled as well as teleported…" Ninten added innocently.

"Well you certainly don't hear that every day *giggle*" the magypsy added.

"Hey, do you know anything about either an alien named Giegue or a dark dragon?"

"I haven't a clue for that Giegue thing, but, I know a fair bit about the dark dragon if you wish! *Giggle, giggle*"

"That would be very helpful!" replied Ninten as he pulled out an Oreo and ate half of it in one bite.

"My, my!" Aeolia gasped. "What delectable nibbles have you bought with you today? *giggle, giggle*"

"Oh! These are Oreos, they're two cookies with a creamy filling in them!" Ninten explained.

"Well, perhaps my memory of the dark dragon has gotten a little bit fuzzy… *giggle*… maybe an Oreo will jog my memory… *giggle, giggle*"

"But, Oreos are my favourite!" Protested the red-capped boy. "And I can't get any more until I find a way back to my time!"

"I think what you ought to ask is 'is an Oreo worth the end of the world?' *giggle, giggle*" Aeolia said slyly.

Ninten sighed deeply which triggered his asthma so he took a breath of his inhaler. "Fine! Twist my arm a little bit, why don't ya!"

He reluctantly handed over an Oreo to the Magypsy who scoffed it all down within seconds.

"HOW DELIGHTFUL!?" Aeolia exclaimed excitedly.

"You like it?"

"DO I EVER!" the Magypsy continued. "It is the most delicious thing I ever put in my mouth! *giggle, giggle*"

"Well I gave you what you wanted, now tell me about the dark dragon!" Ninten demanded.

"Very well, I can tell you through a vision quest if you simply have a cup of the coffee *giggle, giggle*"

"Looks like I'ma have to pinch my nose and down it!" said Ninten as he did exactly that.

"Wonderful! *giggle, giggle*" Aeolia said. "We can begin!"

**When this world was born, a great power was born along with it, the Dark Dragon.  
The Dragon has an unlimited source of power and has the ability to reshape both time and space.  
Long ago, the dragon came to rest on this world and drifted off in to a deep slumber. To keep this power from falling into the wrong hands, the Magypsy ancestors placed seven needles in the dragon to keep it from waking until the right time came along, one needle for each Magypsy. Long after the power was sealed away, the islands you stand on were formed, the Nowhere islands. Thanks to the Dragon's power, these islands are protected from all manner of threats be it nuclear war or falling stars, as long as the dragon rests beneath the islands, this is the only absolutely safe place on the planet.**

**It was said long ago that one day, the time for the Dragon to wake up will come and that someone capable of pulling the seven needles will be born. For someone to be able to pull the needles, they must possess the power of PK Love, one of the most powerful PSI attacks that not even we Magypsies can master. Whoever pulls the needles will pass their heart onto the dragon, if they have a heart of light, the dragon will recreate the entire world in the image of what the heart of light desires most and all of time will be reborn setting right any changes which were not meant to take place. However, if someone with a heart of dark pulls the needles, the dragon will destroy the world and let what is left to decend into chaos and turmoil, a fate we Magypsies do not wish on any being, even the most evil and cold hearted person this fate I would not wish upon.**

**It is our hope that when the time comes, the one who pulls the seven needles is someone with a pure heart of light… **

Ana had been spending the day with the lady she had met before when a sudden prick in the PSI field caught her attention. There was a sudden surge of energy in the Polestar School that could only mean one thing, Giegue had made his way to that world, or was this the version of Giegue which had visited the time before to cause a still birth.

"Would you like something to drink, dear?" asked the woman.

"Um… well I could really go for some fruit punch…" Ana said as she searched the immediate vicinity to pick up on any kind of presence of Giegue.

"Well I'd have to pop to the shop, but I can make you that if you wish" said the woman once again as she picked up her bag and left for the shop. I know, you're probably thinking 'oh yeah! It's totally plausible that a woman would leave a stranger in her house while she went to the shop, but hey, it was a different time so ya know.

Ana closed her eyes and started using pulses of PSI like a sonar to pick up on Giegue's whereabouts.

…

…

…

"There you are!" cried Ana as she put her hands together and shot a PK Fire across the room and impacted Giegue's invisible body.

**"****How?!" **Giegue panted as he stared at the pig-tailed girl before him. **"How did you know my plan?! You weren't even involved with the plot!"**

"Well I'm from your future, the one where you successfully erased everyone!" told Ana.

**"****And yet, I sense that you don't even know who it is that you are here to save—"**

"Well that doesn't matter, as long as I stop you right here, right now, we'll have one more ally!"

Giegue chuckled, **"Is that so?"**

Ana used a PSI Paralysis and completely immobilized Giegue. A small electrical current was surging about Giegue's body as he squirmed and trembled ever so slightly.

"huh… that was easier than expected!" Ana said to herself, almost in disbelief.

**"****GRRRR" **Growled Giegue frustratedly. **"YOU SMUG LITTLE—"**

Ana had initiated a PSI brain shock but nowhere near the extent that Paula had been before.

"Sorry! What was that?" the pig-tailed girl said smugly. "I couldn't hear you over the sound of your nervous system shutting down!"

**"****DON'T THINK YOU'VE WON THIS FIGHT!" **Giegue yelled as he powered through the paralysis and brain shock and had slowly started to back into a portal he had made. **"I'M ONLY RETREATING BECAUSE… err… I LEFT A CHICKEN IN THE OVEN!... yeah!"**

Just as sudden as his appearance, Giegue vanished through a blue portal back to the void he uses as a safe base.

:*:

A couple of hours had passed, and Ana and the strange lady of Polestar academy had been chewing the fat for that entire time before the woman started getting sharp pains in her stomach, I'm certain you know where I'm going with this.

"ANA!" the woman yelped as she had another contraction. "I NEED YOU TO CALL AN AMBULANCE!"

"OH! OKAY!" panicked Ana as she ran into the kitchen and did just that.

As Ana put down the phone, a car pulled up in the driveway of the school, it was the woman's husband.

"OH MY GOSH!" he cried as he burst through the door. "IS IT TIME?! ALREADY!?"

Ana and the woman looked at each other in disbelief as the man started to panic.

"AAAHH!" he cried. "I can't be a father! I don't eat my vegetables and I'm expected to somehow get a child to!?"

"Ana, slap him!"

"Sure" Ana shrugged as she raised her hand and struck the side of the man's face.

The ambulance soon rocked up and crashed through the white picket fence with all the blue lights flashing brightly and if you haven't played Earthbound or at least haven't made it to Twoson, you would not know that the hospital is literally about a minute away from Polestar Academy in case the ambulance arriving so quickly seems a little implausible.

The woman and her husband were bought into the back of the ambulance and rushed off to hospital leaving Ana standing in the yard.

Not long after, a strange looking flash appeared in the garden revealing that it was Loid on his time machine that is just a little too convenient.

"Ana! I have found you after only 3,409 jumps through time and space, it is difficult to lock onto a person's whereabouts in time and space when you don't even know what century they landed in." Loid exclaimed in his usual monotonal voice.

"Oh thank god!" Ana sighed with relief. "I won't have to live out the rest of my days in this weird time!"

"This is the future of our time, only by about 6 years, give or take!"

"Irrelevant! Have you found Ninten?" the pig tailed girl asked curiously.

"No I have not, but I have located the source of the temporal distortion!"

"What is that?"

"The epicentre of when everything in the time-space continuum was distorted, when Giegue erased everyone from the timeline, this is when they all disappeared, the year 299X in a town called _Tam-zilly?_"

"Oh!" Ana giggled. "Let's go there! We might be able to stop it from happening!"

"Well we can go there but it is unlikely we can stop it as the temporal distortion has already taken place!"

Ana stepped onto the weird time traveling device which was like a rocking horse only it had 3 seats and was completely robotic.

They disappeared in a blinding flash and travelled to the year 299X.

Ana and Loid appeared on a cliffside near the stone church in which everyone took shelter only moments prior to the duo's arrival.

"What in God's name happened here?" cried Ana as she looked around to see the destruction.

"It appears that some kind of Armageddon-type of event took place, most likely Giegue's uprising!"

"how very perceptive!" Ana said sarcastically to her companion.

Just as the air around this area had seemed to grow calm following the utter destruction that had happened, the wind started to pick up again making Loid and Ana get a little uneasy.

"What is happening?" questioned Loid calmly.

Ana gasped like she was about to speak but was rendered speechless by the marvel occurring before hers and Loid's eyes.

Strong waves of white light were coursing across the sky as many of the trees glowed slightly in response to this energy. They grew stronger and stronger, speeding a little faster across the stormy sky until they were moving so quickly that the entire sky was glowing a blinding white light making it hard for the duo to see.

After a couple of seconds, the light died down revealing a girl with blonde hair and a red ribbon in her hair standing there looking a little dazed and disorientated.


	33. Chapter 33: An unknown friend joined you

Ninten had passed out following his vision quest with Aeolia, he was feeling a little bit overwhelmed from the coffee.

"Ninten! *giggle*" Aeolia called out. "It's time to wake up! *giggle, giggle*"

"Huh?" mumbled Ninten as he woke up. "Is there a penguin?"

"What? A penguin?" Aeolia repeated questioningly.

"Yeah!"

"No! just wake up *giggle*"

"Maybe later…"

"But—"

"Later…" Ninten added as he dozed back off.

Ana and Loid were standing with their eyes locked onto this strange girl.

"Who are you and what happened to my friends!?" Paula cried, seeming rather distressed and understandably so.

"I'm Ana and this is Loid, we know what happened to your friends—"

"Your friends were erased from the timeline along with you by the villainous Giegue and we are not really sure of how you are back, but we came here because this is where the distortion in time began!" Loid blurted coldly.

"ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD!?" Paula sobbed.

"Oh nice going Loid! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Ana scolded. She then walked over to the sobbing Paula and gently patted her back to comfort her.

"On the Brightside, if we can figure out how you were bought back, we can bring the rest of them back." Loid added.

"Well, when did Giegue go back to? Ya know, so he could erase us?" Paula asked seeming interested.

"He said he travelled back to the day which all of your group were born and used magic to cause a still-birth!" Loid explained.

"Then we need to go back to everyone's birthday to save them?" Ana clarified.

"It isn't that simple, we need to obey the rules of time travel!" the trash child preached. "Which means we can't go back to a time and interact with our past or future selves and by extension, we only get one chance to save each person. Also, we can't alter anything from the past as we'd have no idea how it would affect the future!"

"seems simple enough!" Paula said.

"We need to figure out who we are going to save first!" Ana added. "Paula? You know the birthdays, right?"

After about an hour or two of Ninten being completely zonked out, Aeolia finally poured a glass of water over his face and woke the sleeping loaf.

"What's happening?" yawned Ninten.

"A surprise *giggle*" Aeolia replied. "Come outside!"

Ninten followed the Magypsy's instructions and exited the seashell house to find Aeolia with another pink-haired person.

"Is this _him?_" the other Magypsy asked.

"Indeed it is!" Aeolia said.

"Who are you?" Ninten asked curiously.

"My name is Ionia… *giggle*… I am one of the seven Magypsies!"

"Oh! It's nice to meet you!"

"We have a plan to help you back to your time *giggle*" Aeolia said cryptically.

Ninten turned his head to the side as if he was questioning what the Magypsies were saying, "and what will that be?"

"We are going to call all of the other Magypsies and we'll combine our powers and we can use your 4thD slip to travel to whatever time you please!" Ionia told.

"How did you know I can use 4thD slip?"

"We can read your PSI!" Aeolia blurted.

"Although, if we are to accurately travel to the desired time… *giggle*… we will need at least six Magypsies in total, if not, we could end up arriving too early or too late!"

"Well how long until we can try it?" Ninten questioned.

"We'll have to wait until the others get here!" Ionia said.

Ninten sat on a log that had been chopped down and awaited the arrival of the other Magypsies.

Loid, Ana and Paula had spent the evening deciding who they were going to save and how they would get them back on the time machine as it only has three seats. Loid had been working on an extension to the time machine that acted like the boot of the car.

"Huh…" Loid said as Ana and Paula perked up after hearing this noise.

"What is it?" asked Paula curiously.

"I just realised that I did not have to create this extension!"

"How so?" questioned Ana.

"Well when they get added back into the timeline, they appear at the moment they disappeared. Which seems a little odd because they all disappeared at the same time so how are they supposed to come back?"

"Loid, it is rather simple!" Ana said smugly. "every time we come back after saving someone, we would always come back at the same moment, the moment when everyone was erased because they would always be bought back at the same time, it would be the very same second, just to us, time would have passed but to them, it would be like nothing was amiss!"

"…"

"You okay, Loid?" Paula asked after watching that brutal intellectual beat down.

"Oh yeah, I am not crying, I just have allergies!" Loid convinced himself.

The trio took a second to compose themselves and then stepped onto the time machine and travelled to one of the dates which Paula had previously imputed onto the screen.

A blinding flash of light appeared from the machine and they disappeared.

"Oh my!" Ionia exclaimed. "The others are certainly taking their time *yawn and then a giggle*"

"UGH!" groaned Ninten. "We've been waiting for, like, half an hour!"

"Yes…" Aeolia added. "And somehow, I sense they are all no closer than when they first set off!"

"This is stupid!" the red-capped boy whined. "Let's just go back to the other plot! Over to you, Ana!"

"Thanks Ninten!" replied Ana. "I'm standing outside this place which we have deduced to be Poo's birthplace!"

"And we have no idea who that is!" Added Loid.

"I do—" cried Paula.

"anyways, it seems the weather is clear tonight and we'll have more updates after sports, back to you!"

"That was weird, right?" Loid asked Paula.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that!" Paula responded.

Ana, Loid and Paula had started preparations to enter the castle to protect Poo's pregnant mother when they realised that she had already given birth and that baby Poo was sleeping in a Moses Basket at the top floor.

"Hmm… something doesn't make sense…" Ana postulated.

"Is it Loid's failure to wear deodorant?"

"HEY! I live in a trash can, so this is okay!" Loid protested.

"No! not that!" Ana clarified. "Giegue said he caused a still-birth, but Poo has already been born?"

"So?"

"What happened between Giegue and Poo that was so awful that Giegue would want to kill a baby?"

"Oh! I can answer this one!" Paula said. "Basically, Poo used an attack called PK Star Storm at max power and nearly killed Giegue so he's probably just bitter about that!"

"Well we need to find a way to get to the top of the castle to protect him." Loid added.

"If only Ness were here!" Paula sighed. "He'd be able to teleport us right up there!"

"My time machine can teleport, let's just do that!" Loid said seeming a little more enthusiastic.

So Paula and Ana climbed onto the time machine and teleported to the top of the castle and were sure to be quiet, so they didn't wake the baby.

"Alright!" Ana whispered. "We need to make this as quiet as possible which means no frying pans—"

"Aww"

"And no laser guns!"

"Aww"

"Loid!" Ana said. "When we find Giegue, I'm going to tackle him out of the window, so I want you to use your machine to teleport and save me!"

"Got it!"

"Paula, you use your PK Fire and paralysis to take him down and I'll go in for the tackle!"

"Alright!"

Ana and Paula joined hands and used their PSI to locate Giegue who should be arriving any time now.

…

…

…

"There!" they whispered in unison.

As instructed, Paula used a paralysis on Giegue before his feet even hit the ground and then used a PK Fire which is when Ana tackled him out of the wide-open window and was then followed by Loid who teleported to the rescue moments before she hit the floor along with Giegue.

Of course, Giegue was still alive despite the 30-foot drop but there wouldn't be a plot if not so ya know.

"Alright! Nice work!" cried Ana.

"Let's torture him violently and extract as much information as we can out of him!" Paula said innocently.

"Nope!"

"Aww"

"Is it just me or did that seem too easy—"

Giegue became conscious and grabbed Ana by the throat mid-sentence using only one of his thin arms.

**"****Well!" **Giegue exclaimed in frustration. **"Does anyone have a preference as to who I kill first, or shall I surprise you?"**

"Yeah I have a preference!" Paula said. "How about you kill yourself?!"

**"****Oh… you're back…" **Giegue mumbled. **"You're lucky we can't go back to times we've already visited, or you wouldn't be here!"**

"Bitch! I ain't going nowhere!" she yelled in her usual southern accent.

**"****Well my plans have already be thwarted so don't mistake my retreat for a loss, I will not stop until the world is at my feet and crushing you worms is but another obstacle! If you wish to engage in a war against me, I will gladly welcome that invitation but just know that you will never win!"**

Giegue disappeared once again making the mission seem a success.

"Shall we call this a victory?" asked Ana.

"Sure!" replied Loid.

"Let's go check if we bought Poo back!"

Ana, Loid and Paula travelled back to the year 299X to see if they had been successful.

The time machine appeared in the same place it had appeared before with Loid, Ana and Paula riding on it.

"Shouldn't he be here?" Paula questioned.

"Give it a second!" Loid said.

Just as before, the sky illuminated with the strong white rays. In case you were wondering what the white rays were, it is basically the timeline being restored or something.

The light turned to a solid, blinding, white light and stayed that way for a good 10 seconds before revealing Poo.

As he fell to the ground on his knees, he shouted, "I. AM. NOT. BALD!"

"Poo!" Paula said excitedly. "You're okay!"

"Huh?" Poo said questioningly. "Paula? What's going on?! You disappeared right before my eyes… and then Jeff and Boney did…. Then I did!"

Loid gasped like he was about to speak when Poo held out a hand to silence him.

"Who's this dude?" Poo asked Paula.

"These people are Loid and Ana!" Paula explained. "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have come back, and neither would you!"

"Oh…" pouted the monk. "Well then I suppose I should thank you…"

"Yes you should!" scolded Ana as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Out of curiosity, are we able to save the others?" Poo questioned.

"Presumably!" Loid responded. "Although the issue is that my time machine only has three seats so one of us will have to stay behind which begs the question, is the one who stays behind going to notice a delay between when the timeline becomes correct or will it be like the one we bring back never left?"

"Well I don't know about any of that, but we should be moving onto the next person to save!" Ana preached.

"Well let's see…" Paula began. "We need to make sure that we don't go back to a time in which we already exist AND are going in order of 'who was erased first' so Jeff will be next I presume!"

"Indeed, Jeff is next!" Loid clarified.

"Jeff is older than me, which means I can come! However, I think I should sit this one out!" The frying pan user said disappointedly.

"Well it looks like you're coming with us, Poo!" Ana yelled. "So what do you bring to the team?"

"Oh! Me?" Poo stuttered. "I'm a PSI user just like you and Paula!"

"Are you powerful?" the pig-tailed girl prodded.

"Fairly powerful, I have mastered some attacks which are quite difficult such as PK Star Storm!"

"Well I've never heard of that one but, I think we ought to get on with it!" Loid said getting everyone back on track.

As Loid had instructed, he, Ana and Poo sat on the time-machine ready to go and save Jeff by going back in time. The machine sprung into life and started floating before disappearing leaving Paula standing alone, waving the brave children goodbye.

Ninten had finally been united with two of the other Magypsies to make their way to Aeolia's house, those other Magypsies being Mixolidia and Lydia who took their sweet time getting there.

"*giggle* You'll have to excuse us for taking so long *Giggle*" Mixolidia apologised. "Lydia here wanted to stop and do her make-up *giggle* roughly 40 times!"

Lydia gasped. "Only because you wanted to take the scenic, yet humid route and made all of my make-up run *giggle*"

"Moving onto the matter at hand…" Aeolia said getting the conversation back on track. "We need all of the Magypsies to help this young man here!"

"Ooh!" Lydia cried. "You never said we had an out of town traveller *Giggle*!"

"Well I was trying *giggle*, but I couldn't get a word in edgeways!" Aeolia protested.

"Where are the other three?" Ionia questioned.

"Oh!" Mixolidia giggled. "Locria said she'd rather not help us out because she's a bitch *Giggle* and the other two are supposedly on their way *Giggle*"

"Well that's all real nice, but can they help at all?" Ninten asked as he tried to reassert himself into the conversation.

"Yes *giggle*" Ionia replied. "More PSI Power means time travel *giggle*"

"Does it?" the red-capped boy questioned sceptically.

Loid, Ana and Poo had arrived in the past and were standing outside a younger version of Jeff's house. Loid paused for a second as he examined the house.

"Wait a minute?" he questioned.

"What's the matter?" Poo asked. "This is the right place, Dr Andonuts' house!"

"Andonuts?!" Loid asked in a panic.

"Oh shit!" Ana cried.

"What is it?" the monk once again asked.

"This is Loid's future self!" Ana said. "Loid's last name is Andonuts!"

"Oh crap!"

"I can't be here!" Loid panicked as he dived into the nearest trash can, this he yelled with actual emotion in his voice if you can believe it! "You've gotta do this without me!"

"No!" Poo moaned. "This is my first time-travel mission, I don't know what I'm doing!"

"Don't worry!" Ana assured. "We got this! We'll come back here once the mission is a success and then go back to 299X."

"Alright… so all we have to do is stop Giegue from causing the still-birth… right?" the monk clarified.

"Yep!" yelled Loid from within the trash-can.

As instructed, Ana and Poo proceeded in finding and eliminating Giegue which would certainly take some time, right?

…

…

Or not.

As Ana and Poo were stealthily approaching the house to keep an eye on Mrs Andonuts and make sure she's okay, Giegue manifested right before them.

**"****HA-HA-HA - *COUGH, COUGH*" **Giegue cackled. **"You're more predictable than the seasons of the year!"**

"Yeah… well… you… look weird." Ana retorted dimly.

**"****Is that ****_seriously _****the best you've got?" **Giegue mocked once again.

"Why don't you try me?" Poo exclaimed.

**"****Listen, we all know we're about to fight so can we skip the dialogue and get down to my victory?"**

"You're not going to have a victory!" Ana protested.

"Yeah!" Poo added, backing the former up.

Giegue giggled as he spread his arms and released a powerful PSI shockwave which Ana was able to shield from, however, Poo was caught in the surge and was sent flying backwards letting out a girly scream as his body rolled on the floor.

Ana put her hands together and summoned a yellow lightning bolt which coursed across the battlefield and erupted before Giegue scorching his body.

Giegue flew backwards and crashed on the grassy dirt, groaning a little in the process.

He stood up and dusted himself up. He then shot a PK Beam which Ana deflected once again, the beam ricocheted and hit Poo as he was getting back up… hahahahaha hahahahaha *ahem* …. Guess it's only funny if you have a twisted sense of humour like me. Anyways, back to the plot…

Poo, after receiving a barrage of asinine attacks, was finally able to get up and join the fight. He raised his hands and fired a PK Freeze… Fired? Shot? Yeah, shot sounds better! The frozen PSI darted across the battlefield and solidified Giegue's entire body and completely immobilised him. Ana took this as an opportunity to go over to the bin that Loid was hiding in and took out his gun that was especially designed to warp Giegue out of the time they were currently in.

"TAKE THIS YOU WRETCH!" screamed Ana as she aimed the gun at Giegue's frozen body and pulled the trigger. Giegue's body began to glow before he disappeared completely.

Just as quickly as he had appeared, Giegue was gone and it would obviously take some time for him to thaw out, so the heroes had won this fight.

"Well I would call this mission a success!" Yelled Loid from within the trashcan. "Good work team!"

"What do you mean, team?" Poo questioned slyly. "You've barely contributed here!"

"Irrelevant!" Loid added as he whipped out his time machine.

The trio hopped onto the time machine and warped back to 299X where the same process of someone being bought back happened. Now Jeff had finally been resurrected and they had some more brain power. Yay!


	34. Chapter 34: One more to go!

The group that had been resurrected had conveniently bought back everyone except Lucas off screen because I could not be bothered to write those in. They had a formidable team now and yet only three could use the time machine at a time.

"I am going! No questions asked!" Ness yelled to the group even though no-one had any objections.

"Okay!" replied Loid who was uncharacteristically happy about the fact that someone had finally volunteered to save the last one of the group.

"I'm going too!" Said Kumatora.

"Alright then…" Ana said as she rallied up the remaining members of the group. "We can take the time to figure out how to bring back Ninten from wherever he is."

The time machine hummed to life and vanished in a flash of light with the trio on it and took them back to back to the year that Lucas and Claus was born.

Meanwhile, Ninten was with the other Magypsies who had finally gotten off their asses and decided to help Ninten get back to the others even though they were trying to figure out how to get him back but why not?

"How is this going to work?" Ninten questioned questioningly. "Like, how exactly are we going to time travel by doing this?"

"Simple!" Ionia exclaimed. "We'll share our PSI energy with you and then you can use your 4th D Slip and hopefully you will be able to break down the barriers blocking you from the space-time continuum. Easy!"

"For those of us who speak English…" began Doria. "If you have enough power, you should be able to teleport through time essentially *giggle*"

"Alright…." Ninten sighed feeling a little uneasy about the plan, although he had no choice but to suck it up because there was no other way back to his friends. "What will happen if it doesn't work?"

"well there are a number of possibilities *giggle*" began Mixolidia. "Hopefully, if it doesn't work, it will just spit you back out in the moment you tried to leave *giggle, giggle*, that is the best-case scenario…"

"And the worst-case scenario?" asked Ninten as he nervously ate an Oreo.

"You'll be completely obliterated by the energy surge and will disappear never to be seen again…" Lydia said bluntly.

Ninten started choking on his Oreo as he gasped at the last remark. Aeolia gave him a firm pat on the back and the sandwich-biscuit came flying out of his mouth.

"Now, now!" Aeolia giggled. "If you die now, we'll never get to see if our plan worked *giggle*"

"Thanks, I feel so much better now…" Ninten said sarcastically.

"Is Locria ever going to turn up?" asked Ionia to her fellow Magypsies.

"Well she said, and I quote, 'F**k off! I'm busy turning evil!'" Lydia replied.

"Ah so normal Locria then?" giggled Mixolidia.

"Honestly, she's been like this since she first heard 'Tainted Love' by Marylyn Manson!" Doria sighed.

"But he doesn't exist yet—"

"Hush Ninten!" Aeolia silenced. "We should begin with this then, let's see if it works *giggle*"

As Aeolia commanded, the six Magypsies formed a circle around Ninten making him a little uneasy and let their PSI energy radiate from their bodies which the red-capped boy absorbed like a sponge. The more energy filled Ninten, the more his body began to glow a strong pink light. After a couple more seconds, the light turned to a solid white light which indicated that it was finally ready to go.

"Good luck, Ninten *giggle*" yelled Ionia.

"Thanks" replied Ninten as he looked to the sky and yelled '4th D Slip!' with one particular destination in mind.

The light turned blinding as Ninten's body started to rise into the air and with one more flash, he had disappeared leaving ripples of left-over energy to disperse through the air.

It was a nice and sunny day which the trio tasked with saving Lucas had arrived in. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the birds were singing as they flew about it.

"Wow…" mumbled Ness in astonishment. "I didn't realise how beautiful this world was before Giegue ruined it…"

"Believe it or not, rain is quite rare on the Nowhere islands…" Kumatora added as she too was mesmerised by the sight.

"Guys! FOCUS!" yelled loid as he clapped his hands together and made the other two regain focus. "Alright… according to the time machine, Lucas and his twin will be born in precisely 14 minutes which means we need to find Giegue and get rid of him before that time is up!"

"WHY DID YOU GIVE US SO LITTLE TIME?!" Kumatora said in a seemingly angry tone if you couldn't tell by the aggressive capital letters.

"Because I didn't want to have to wait some asinine time period before Giegue appeared…" Loid said in protest. "And anyway, the time machine is a little imprecise in terms of exact time in which to appear."

"Well let's get to work instead of arguing!" said Ness as he got his cohorts back on track.

Kumatora and Ness joined hands and started sharing PSI energy which they were using as a sonar to track Giegue's location.

"What are you two doing?" Loid questioned.

"Using PSI to track where Giegue is… duh!" Kumatora replied.

"Hold on…." Ness said as his face tensed up a little. "I think I've got something…"

Meanwhile, Ana, Paula, Poo, Jeff and Boney were becoming better acquainted while they discussed how to find Ninten.

"I do not know any of you…" Ana said out of the blue. "And yet I can tell we are a good team!"

"Woof! (If you say so, Princess –) Boney responded, but was interrupted by Paula's frying pan which she still had somehow.

"DON'T BE RUDE!" she yelled at the pooch.

"So you all have met Ninten before?" Ana questioned.

"Yeah…" replied Jeff. "He first appeared during a Karaoke competition and sung for us!"

"Well he does love singing" the pig-tailed girl giggled.

"Anyone else feel proper awkward right now?" Poo asked addressing the elephant in the room.

"Yeah!" literally everyone replied including the one who was trying to force conversation in the first place.

"We should probably find Ninten…" Paula added.

"Well I have a miniature version of the time machine, but it can only take two people which means that only one of us can go and find him!" Jeff blurted.

"It should be me, after all, I am his girlfriend!" Ana said smugly.

"But he tried it on with Claus like 5 times?!" Poo questioned.

"HE F***ING WHAT?!" yelled the pig-tailed girl as she turned around and faced Poo with fire in her eyes.

"Err – nothing! He _didn't try it on with Claus, _I'm thinking of another Ninten… hehehe…" the monk said trying to cover his tracks.

"I'MA KILL A BITCH!" Ana yelled as she started furiously pressing buttons on the time machine and then disappeared right before Jeff could yell "Wait! You don't know where you're going!"

Hmmm… I wonder where Ana ended up.

Ninten appeared in a world that looked more or less identical to the Nowhere islands he was familiar with, however, there appeared to be some sort of conflict occurring just over the cobblestone bridge.

"What's going on?" mumbled Ninten as he creeped in closer.

He was now sitting flat on a hill watching a familiar scene play out… well the scene wasn't familiar to him, but it is to us.

Giegue was being pummelled by a barrage of PSI attacks coming from his acquaintances before he saw a familiar looking blonde step to the foreground and yell 'COVER ME!' as he charged his attack.

Before long, the blonde's attack was ready, and he yelled 'PK LOVE OMEGA' and let out a surge of white energy which blistered and battered Giegue's skin.

Ninten had no idea what was happening, but he got a feeling in his gut that he needed to get as close to the scene as possible, so he did just that. Why you ask? Well he didn't exactly know, he just went with it.

The smoke cleared revealing that Giegue was seemingly more angry than usual, Lucas and his friends had surely pissed him off.

**"****YOU'RE ALL BEGGING TO DIE TODAY, AREN'T YOU!?" **he yelled in frustration. **"EXCEPT FOR THOSE TWO, THEY HAVEN'T EVEN TRIED TO HIT ME YET!" **the alien added as he pointed at Claus and Fuel who were hugging for some reason.

Blah, blah, blah… you know where I'm going with this…

**"****IF I CAN'T KILL YOU ALL, THEN ONE OF YOU WILL SUFFICE!" **Yelled Giegue as he took aim at Lucas and shot a PK beam that looked pretty damn powerful.

Ninten gasped and thought fast, he quickly summoned a PSI Shield in front of Lucas that deflected the beam off into space right as Duster jumped in to save Lucas. The duo that had just been saved looked dumbfoundedly at what had just happened.

Before anyone spotted him, Ninten ran and hid behind a rock which is when Ana appeared with the time machine and dragged him back to 299X.

In case you were wondering, things more or less play out exactly the same way, except Duster does not die. Although, in this version of events, Poo and Kumatora join forces with the PK Star Storm and basically blow up the village.

Ana and Ninten appeared in a flash back in 299X which is when Ana immediately started arguing with the latter.

"WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET OFF TRYING IT ON WITH OTHER BOYS WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY IN A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP WITH ME?!" Ana screamed and ranted.

The others of the group simply watched on in horror.

"Whoa… what do you mean?!" Ninten asked in a puzzled tone. "also, hello, nice to be reunited and all that!"

"They told me that you tried it on with someone named Claus!" Ana continued ignoring Ninten's last remark.

"Yeah, tried and failed!"

"You're unbelievable!"

"And yet you still love me!" Ninten giggled.

"Don't push it!"

The trio had set up ready to ambush Giegue, Ness was perched on a tree branch, Loid was crouched on a rooftop and Kumatora was hiding in an old shed. The three of them were ready for a fight which was exactly what they were about to get.

From outside their house, the trio could hear Hinawa screaming in pain (obviously because she was in labour) which is when Giegue appeared at the window's side.

Ness signalled with a count-down of the fingers when they'd attack… 3… 2… 1… NOW!

Ness then jumped from the tree clutching his baseball bat and went to smack Giegue with it which is when Giegue turned around with a glow in his eyes and stopped Ness mid-air using his telekinesis.

**"****Ooooh…" **Giegue smirked. **"so close…"**

"I'll say!" Ness replied as he and Giegue looked up to see Loid pointing a laser gun at the latter.

**"****CRAP!" **Giegue yelled as Loid pulled the trigger and blew Giegue backwards setting Ness free in the process.

Kumatora then burst out of the shed and put her fingers together and shot a PK Fire across the battlefield which erupted and sent Giegue flying past the shrubberies. He was soon followed by the trio.

They seemed to have knocked Giegue out by the looks of things as Giegue was completely motionless.

"Huh… that seemed too easy…" Kumatora said sceptically.

Just as she said that, Giegue's eye opened and a PK Beam fired from it which sent Kumatora flying backwards.

**"****STOP GETTING IN MY WAY!" **Yelled Giegue frustratedly.

"Never" said Loid as he pulled out his 'stun gun' and shot it paralysing Giegue's body.

As Giegue fell to the ground, unable to move, the combatants heard 'IT'S A BOY!' be yelled from within the log cabin.

**"****I'm… running… out of … time!" **The alien mumbled seeming a little desperate.

Giegue summoned all the power he had to break free of the paralysis and then began the dash to the cabin to stop Lucas from being born as they only had a minute or two left on the clock.

Kumatora jumped out of the bush and wrapped her arms around the alien and dug in her heels to stop him from moving. She mumbled 'you're not going anywhere!' as she did so.

The pink-haired princess then summoned a clear blue energy to her hands and yelled 'PK Freeze!' causing Giegue's entire body to become encased in ice.

Loid and Ness then pushed the giant ice-cube down the slope of the hill and let it slide down. You could say they disposed of the body, of course he wasn't dead!

The trio sat down beneath the window and waited to hear the words 'and another boy' or something of that variety come from within.

"AND THAT'S BOY NUMBER TWO!"

A sigh of relief was breathed by the trio as they deemed their penultimate mission a success, although the last mission to come was going to be the most important of all.

The three of them hopped onto the time machine and returned to the year they came from.

Loid, Ness and Kumatora appeared back and Ana and Ninten were still arguing but were silenced when the sky started glowing again and Lucas appeared looking a little dazed.

Of course it took less than a second for Ness to run up to the blonde and hug him so tightly that the latter almost vomited his internal organs.

"I never thought I'd see you again!" Ness said with tears of joy streaming down his face.

"Huh?" Lucas responded coldly. "What happened? The last thing I remember was all of you disappearing and that's it!"

"We all came back thanks to Ana and Loid!" Kumatora explained as Lucas looked over to see the two strangers waving at him.

"Oh… well thank you very much!" Lucas nervously replied with a beaming grin.

"HEY GUYS! WAIT UP!" yelled an unknown yet familiar voice.

Everyone looked behind them to see Duster running up to them which took them all by surprise.

"D-Duster?" mumbled Jeff confusedly.

"Yeah! Sorry I took so long to get here by the way, it's hard to run that distance on a peg leg…" Duster explained.

Kumatora ran up to him and jumped into his arms.

"What's up?" Duster asked concernedly.

"Dude… you were dead!" Kumatora said. "We couldn't even find your body… we had a funeral for you and everything!"

"I… I died?" Duster clarified seeming more confused than ever.

"Oh! You were going to die at that moment?" Ninten asked.

"How do you know that?" asked Ness.

"Because I was there!"

"What did you do?" asked Lucas.

"I created a shield to block the PK Beam that would have killed Duster!" Ninten said innocently.

"So… you saved my life?" asked Duster.

"I guess so…"

"NOW HOLD ON!" Ana yelled. "THIS LITTLE CHEATER SAVED YOUR LIFE?!"

"I'M NOT A CHEATER!"

"YES YOU ARE!"

"Yeah, I suppose so!" Duster answered. "thank you!"

"It's nothing!" Ninten giggled modestly.

"On a different, yet not unrelated note, we should probably figure out how to stop Giegue!" Loid said, getting the group back on track.

"well we know when he is, and he doesn't know the same for us…" said Jeff as a thought process went through his mind. "What if we used this time period as a safe space to train and prepare for the attack on Giegue?"

"That's perfect!" cried Paula.

"It will give us plenty of time to hone our powers and come up with a brilliant plan of attack!" Poo said, chiming in.

"Then it's settled!" Ness said, taking charge of the conversation. "We'll stay here and train until we are ready to beat Giegue!"


	35. Chapter 35: Bulked Up!

Two months had passed since the team was finally reunited and the training had been non-stop. Ana and Poo had been teaching the others how to hone their powers with more strength. This meant that everyone could learn from one another such as Ana learning PK Flash from Ness. All the while Loid, and Jeff worked together tirelessly to perfect the ultimate weapon to use against Giegue and the Dark Dragon.

After a couple of twists of the screwdriver, the weapon was ready.

It was a standard looking cannon with a large barrel, however the base of the cannon had a strange looking object within a glass casing that powered the rest of the gun with some kind of untapped energy. The object was a purple crystal that was likely taken from the cavern which housed the seventh needle.

"What's that purple thing?" asked Ness, like oh my god, how can you be so clueless Ness?

"This is a dark crystal, or so we have named it!" explained Jeff.

"After some brief analysis of the cavern in which the last needle was found, I discovered that the crystalline make-up of the cavern had been soaking up the dragon's energy, so much so that this is perhaps the most powerful source of energy that I have had the pleasure to work with!" blurted Loid.

"Huh?" mumbled Lucas.

"Translation please?" said Paula.

"Each crystal possesses the same energy as the dark dragon, ergo, energy we can use to destroy it." Summarised Jeff.

"Now hold on!" yelled Kumatora as she butted in. "We can't destroy the Dark Dragon, it is an essential part of the very Earth's being, it's what keeps the Nowhere islands safe and without it, we'd all perish!"

"Well it's been two months without the dragon, and we haven't died…" said Ninten, questioning the princess.

"Yeah, because we've been lucky that no disaster event has come for us yet!"

"But Ninten has a point…" Ana said. "If the we haven't perished yet, maybe we aren't going to…"

"No, this is only because not a single meteor has fallen out of the sky, nor has a single volcano erupted so we. Got. Lucky."

"Well how about this…" said Loid as he put forward his proposal. "What if we dial it back a bit so we can put the dark dragon back, or at least keep it alive?"

"I suppose so, as long as it stays alive…" Kumatora responded with a slight pout of the lips.

"it will!" clarified Jeff.

"Which reminds me…" began Ness. "How ready do you guys think we are to take on Giegue?"

"I would say that we should do pretty well against him, so long as he doesn't use the dragon against us." Said Jeff.

"I think that as long as we all pull together, we won't lose!" Ana said, really enthusiastically.

"We won't win if we don't have a plan!" Lucas said coldly. "We need to come up with a strategy that Giegue isn't ready for!"

"Wait?" began Duster. "You mean to tell me that we have had two months to work on our abilities and not a single one of you thought to devise a plan?"

"Oh sorry Duster, I was waiting to hear _your _plan…" Kumatora said condescendingly.

"…"

"Actually _I_ have a plan… just not a very good one…" remarked Ness.

"Well let's hear it!" Paula said.

"Okay, here is my plan…" the purple-eyed boy began. "We send Ninten, Ana and Loid in first as they're the only ones he is expecting, then when they have successfully distracted him, the rest of us ambush him. Kumatora will use her PSI Paralysis to restrain him and Paula can use brain shock to prevent him from using his powers and then Lucas, Poo and I will launch our most powerful attacks that we have, Duster and Boney can lob some running bombs to weaken him before our attack. Then for the final smash down, Jeff and Loid will use their pretty new cannon to blast Giegue back to the hell he came from!"

"And if he somehow survives all of that?" questioned Ana.

"Then we keep on fighting him, whatever it takes!"

Giegue was standing amidst the chaos and destruction left in his wake after decimating an entire city right after he sent Ninten, Ana and Loid flying through time. To him, it had only been a couple of hours since that and the villain was revelling in the general hopelessness of humanity.

The city that was standing so proud before the alien arrived was now collapsed into rubble, nothing but the smoking remains of shattered walls stood with the scorched bodies that resided within them scattered throughout. Through his connection with the dark dragon, Giegue was experiencing a surge in power. He now possessed ten-times the destructive capability that he had before making him far more formidable than ever.

It appeared that this new power of Giegue's was directly coming from the dragon, almost like Giegue was using it as a battery.

The tyrant floated down and stood tall atop the wreckage of an army tank which the aforementioned villain destroyed without breaking a sweat.

Something caught Giegue's eye from the side causing him to jump back. As he did so, he noticed that what caught his eye was a fast-moving yellow lightning bolt. He turned his head to the side to see Ana standing there looking flustered.

**"****How exactly did you make it back here?" **Giegue questioned.

"Because I won't rest until I vanquish the evil within you!"

**"– ****PFFFT – HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-NWEH-HEH - *COUGH COUGH*" **Giegue was laughing so hard that he triggered a coughing fit. **"You think a little girl who is on her own could take down a titan such as myself?"**

"…"

**"****You fail to see that my power has grown so much that I could make the gods weep at my mere presence!"**

"Only because you're stealing it off the Dragon!" cried Ninten who was directly behind Giegue, not that the latter noticed or anything.

**"****Oh good, ****_you're _****here…" **Giegue sighed.

"Well that was uncalled for!" Ninten added, seeming really offended.

**"****Maybe so… although I do have a question for you…" **

"And what's that?"

**"****PERISH!" **

"That is not a question!" yelled Ana from the other side of the battlefield.

Ninten gasped like he was about to speak when he was pummelled by a bunch of PSI blasts from Giegue's fingertips.

**"****That's because I don't do requests…"**

Ana jumped forward and launched a PK Flash that blinded Giegue and made him fall to the ground. Giegue soon shrugged it off and got back up, retaliating with a vicious assault of PK Beams which pounded Ana like a paintball gun on rapid fire.

Ninten pulled out his bat and went to impact Giegue with it, Giegue obviously sensed this and teleported out of the way, reappearing in the sky, floating above them all.

**"****So where's the other one?" **Giegue questioned Ana and Ninten.

"Huh?" replied Ninten.

**"****The nerdy one, is he lurking about ready to ambush me or something?"**

"uh… NO!" Ana replied feebly.

**"****So that's a yes…" **Giegue smirked. **"Now must I obliterate the rest of this world to find you or will you show yourself on your own terms?"**

As Giegue finished his sentenced, a nearby tin trash-can started wobbling and eventually fell over. The lid came off and clanged on the floor which is when Loid poked his head through the opening of the can.

"It appears that my efforts of hiding are getting worse…" Loid said.

**"****Yes, it appears so…" **Giegue chimed in.

"I would just like to point out that he wasn't meant to be hiding in a trash-can!" Ana said, singling Loid out.

"I was scared!" Loid protested in his usual monotonal voice.

**"****That's good news for me, I suppose!"**

Out of nowhere, Ninten threw his bat at Giegue which hit his head and made a 'thok' sound when it knocked against his skull.

**"****How bloody rude!" **Giegue said, staring intensely at Ninten.

Ninten gulped but rest assured that he had created the perfect distraction because if there is one thing that Giegue hates, it is to be disrespected.

At that moment, Paula and Kumatora joined the fight. Kumatora used her PSI Paralysis to contain Giegue and Paula used her PSI Brain-shock to cut him off from his powers.

**"****Y-You!?" **Giegue mumbled.

"Aww… Look guys! He missed me!" Kumatora yelled to the others.

Giegue's energy surged a little as he started to power through the paralysis. Kumatora powered up and held him in place using more energy, this time, it was like he was caught in a lasso and Kumatora was holding the rope.

"GUYS! HURRY!" Kumatora yelled to the other combatants. "I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I CAN HOLD HIM!"

Duster and Boney jumped in and both threw a running bomb at Giegue making a very large explosion which loosened the reigns on the paralysis slightly.

Paula and Kumatora were holding their grip on Giegue as tight as they could but it was starting to slip.

At last, Ness, Lucas and Poo jumped in, all fired up and ready to go.

The trio joined hands and shared the power between them. Moments passed and the atmosphere was so intense, it was hard to breathe. At long last, the attack was ready.

The three of them unleashed the most powerful PSI Combination the world had ever seen.

**"****PK LOVE-STAR-STORM-ROCKIN'" **The trio yelled in perfect unison.

Stars began to rain down as they became shrouded in the hexagonal energy and then soon, the sound waves began to ripple through with rainbow coloured pulses of energy traveling throughout the mass.

As the monster attack almost impacted Giegue, he broke free of the paralysis and teleported away.

The attack collided with the ground and erupted in an explosion which sent such a powerful shockwave that those on the battlefield got blasted backwards.

Jeff and Loid tried their best to stabilise themselves as well as the cannon. It charged up while making a humming sound until the blast was ready. A bright purple pulse of dark energy fired out the front. This single blast possessed the same amount of power as three atomic bombs but not to fear, the blast would be small.

Ness, Lucas and Poo had passed out from the intense surge of energy and were now lying on the rubble.

Before long, the explosion passed revealing the entirety of the group covered in dust.

"Is that it?" Duster questioned. "Is he finally dead?"

"I think we did it!" Paula added.

"Where are the others?" Ninten queried. "Ness, Lucas and Poo."

"They're over here!" said Kumatora who was examining the three bodies before her. "It's okay, they're all alive, just unconscious!"

The remainder of the group breathed a sigh of relief that they are okay. They each took a moment to admire the efforts that each of them had gone through in this fight. It took a few moments, but the gravity of the fact that they had finally won the war set in and immense joy was felt throughout the group.

Duster and Boney helped Kumatora to haul the three heroes back to the group to give them some medical attention, they would surely be out for the rest of the night.

The group sat in a circle with a little campfire made out of some of the rubble. Ness, Lucas and Poo were still unconscious and were lying together by the fire. They spent the evening prior to this talking with each other and celebrating their victory. Ana was lying on the ground staring up at the cloudy sky which was starting to clear in some places.

"Wait a sec?" she mumbled as a small opening in the clouds revealed the Dark Dragon's presence in the sky. A few moments later and the clouds blocking its eyes moved away revealing that they were _still _glowing a strong red colour. "OH SHIT!"

As the rest of the group turned to Ana to see what she was on about, the campfire changed to a solid purple light and then erupted into a fiery vortex that engulfed them all and then spat them back out again. As the flames died out, the group saw Giegue floating there with hardly a scratch on him.

**"****Did you miss me?"**


	36. Chapter 36: An early celebration

The group stared in horror at the villain before them, floating there, full of life.

"How?" Kumatora feebly questioned. "How did you survive that?"

**"****He-he-he… suffice it to say that you didn't do so much as hit me, I broke out of your paralysis and teleported away and not a single one of you noticed. Better yet, you celebrated my survival!" **Giegue rambled on. **"I think what makes this funny is that those who possess the most power out of you all are currently lying there, unconscious."**

"Well… what do you want?" Ninten added.

**"****It's simple really, not that any of you would understand…" **The villain began. **"My only purpose in life is to rule those who desire to be ruled. You pathetic humans fall into that category and that is why I have come… to ****_rule_**** you all!"**

"By rule, you mean enslave!" Jeff chimed in.

**"****Potato, tomato, the point is that I will become your ruler, your king… your ****_God _****if you will." **He said, extending his arms out at his side in a way that said, 'OMG look at me, I'm like totally the best'. **"Although, it's worth mentioning that I am genuinely impressed at how you all handled me in battle, dare I say that I kind of wish for you to be by my side as my henchmen."**

"You're insane!" Duster yelled.

**"****I thought as much…"**

"We can stop you!" Paula cried.

Giegue slowly descended from the sky and floated barely off the ground right in front of Paula.

**"****Oh my… you continue to fail in the one thing that can defeat me… and no, this is not that bullshit moment where I reveal to you everything I'm vulnerable to." **Giegue said as he stared deeply into Paula's eyes.

Giegue wrapped his tail up into a little spiral and then let it unravel, smacking Paula and sending her flying to the side.

"HEY!" cried Ana as she put her hands together and shot a PK Fire across the battlefield which Giegue deflected with such elegance.

Ninten used his 4th D Slip to teleport onto Giegue's back, then using his PK Hypnosis, Ninten put Giegue to sleep causing the latter to fall onto the ground.

"Whew… we need to wake the others up somehow…" Ninten said, huffing from exhaustion.

"But how?!" Jeff questioned. "We don't even know what happened to them, for all we know they could be in comas!"

"We could use a small PSI charge to send an impulse through their brains to wake them up?" Kumatora proposed.

"It's worth a try…" said Ana as she bent down towards the unconscious trio and shared a small shock of PSI to stimulate their brains.

Before the moment had passed, Ness, Poo and Lucas regained consciousness. They all seemed to be beaten and weary and I'd guess they had one monster of a headache going on, much like a hang-over.

"Uh…" Ness groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "What happened?"

"The power you used to attack Giegue knocked all three of you out!" Loid explained.

"Oh?" Lucas said before looking over to his left and seeing the tyrant lying there, unconscious. "What the hell is he doing here?! We killed him. How is he still alive?"

Kumatora put her arm around the blonde to comfort him. "He broke free of my paralysis and teleported away right before the attack hit him."

While the group filled the trio in on the events that had transpired in their slumber, Giegue's eyes pinged open. Instead of making large obvious movements like he would have before, Giegue decided to play it stealthy and submerged his hands in the rubble he was laying on. He then let small amounts of PSI seep into the dirt and spread across, searching for a victim.

The PSI manifested into a small line of red energy that wrapped around someone's ankle before slowly making its way up their leg and onto their body. The energy sat there, waiting, crawling on the body before being absorbed into it through the chest. This dark energy consumed the light within the person and took control over their mind. Once again, Giegue had claimed another as his puppet.

Ness closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. Lucas, Paula and Duster all looked to see the strange behaviour before two balls of light manifested in Ness's hands.

"Ness?" Lucas called out. "Are you alright?"

Ness's eyes slowly opened, and a strong red glow shone from within them as the eyelid had completely been drawn back. Before anyone had a chance to react, Ness took the air guitar stance and strummed once using the two balls of light he had created. A large soundwave of rainbow light erupted from the boy and catapulted everyone he had once called a friend, no… this Ness knew nothing of his previous life, he was too far gone to remember. All that remained of him now is the body that he called his own which Giegue is using as his puppet.

The corrupted boy then put the balls of light together and pressed them firmly into the ground before casually strolling off and letting the light explode, enveloping every single one of his friends.

**"****They won't die…" **Ness said to Giegue in a bizarrely low-pitched voice. **"… they'll only wish they had…"**

**"****Excellent work…" **Giegue praised before he created a small portal which the two vanished in.

Ness… the one they had called a friend… there was nothing of that boy left within this body. Giegue had taken that away. All that remained was a soulless puppet with one purpose, devoid of any compassion and light which made him who he was.

Several hours had passed since Giegue claimed Ness and the remaining group were scattered about the site with a large crater in the middle. Kumatora regained consciousness and was the first to notice what had happened. She stood up and looked around, seeing nothing but a crushing defeat.

"Guys?" she called out to the others with no response.

She sighed and checked each and every one of them for a pulse finding one in all of them. Knowing they were all still alive, she used her Life-up Omega and revitalised the entire team, waking them up in the process.

"Uh… what happened?" groaned Duster as he held his stomach in pain.

"Did… did we just lose?" Paula asked with tears filling her eyes.

"What about Ness, what's gonna happen to him?!" Lucas cried in a panic.

"OKAY!" yelled Kumatora. "EVERYONE CALM THE F**K DOWN AND WE CAN FIGURE THIS OUT!"

As per her instruction, the group silenced and settled down.

"What we know is: Giegue took control of Ness's mind and knocked us all out. We don't know if this is a loss, hell, we don't even know if this battle is over yet!"

"yeah but, if the battle wasn't over, Giegue would be here…" Ana said, seeming sceptical about what Kumatora was saying.

"Who says he isn't here?" Kumatora responded. "He could be invisible."

Ness had followed Giegue back to the void which the latter chooses to hide in. The mind control acting on Ness had not faltered in the slightest.

**"****My master…" **Ness said subserviently in his bizarre low voice. **"Is there anything you'd like me to do?"**

**"****Not at the moment, sit down and be quiet!" **Giegue commanded.

**"****As you wish." **

Ness followed the instructions and sat down without question, remaining completely silent.

Giegue retreated into his mind to devise a cunning plan against the heroes of this tale when a sudden rush came over his body. The energy he was using to control both the dark dragon and Ness, along with the usage of his attacks was starting to take its toll on him.

_"__Uh… this feeling, I remember it all too well…" _Giegue thought to himself. _"I'm losing control…"_

Although he was unaware of it, the Dark Dragon was slowly draining Giegue's life force, weakening him and his powers. The longer Giegue maintained the control over the two mindless bodies which he had claimed, the weaker he became.

Hoping for one last hurrah in this war, Giegue warped himself and Ness out of the void and back onto the world, ready to serve his revenge to the group that had troubled him.

"I can't sense him!" Ana said with her eyes closed. She, Poo, Lucas, Ninten and Paula had all joined hands so they could share their power and act similarly to a sonar machine.

"He must be off world!" Kumatora hypothesised.

"Perhaps, or he is masking his power somehow…" Jeff added.

Ninten looked to Lucas who had a worried look plastered on his face. "Hey! Don't worry!" he said to the blonde optimistically. "We'll find him!"

"Yeah, but…" Lucas replied. "What if we're too late, what if Giegue has turned him into something evil?"

"We won't let that happen!" Duster chimed in.

"I've gained so much since he dropped into my life; him, so many new friends and my brother came back… Giegue has already taken two of those things away from me, what if he manages to take you guys away from me too?"

"Don't worry kiddo!" Kumatora said. "We aren't going anywhere!"

"You say that… but you won't exactly be able to stop him from killing you…" Lucas added coldly.

Ana gasped as she felt a spike in psychic energy. "HE'S HERE! GIEGUE'S HERE!"

The group huddled together and took an 'on guard' stance. Lucas used a shield Omega to protect everyone and Poo used a defence-up omega.

Kumatora took the PK Fire stance ready to attack, Jeff pulled out his laser gun and Loid pulled out a normal gun because he's a basic b***h. Paula took out a frying pan from her pocket and Duster took out a pencil rocket. Boney growled a little sensing the looming presence of Giegue. Ninten took out his bat and all seemed like they were ready for this fight.

A psychic surge of energy appeared before them, roughly three metres away. Amidst the rubble and ruins appeared Giegue with Ness standing by his side.

**"****HA! LOOK! I TOLD YOU THEY'D BE STANDING LIKE THAT!" **Giegue laughed.

**"****Congratulations, you are correct!" **Ness plainly replied.

**"… ****You're no fun!" **the tyrant said to his puppet.

"So you've come for a fight?" Kumatora questioned.

**"****YES!" **

"Well then, let's fight!" Lucas added with fire in his eyes.

The blonde's intense stare was directed at Giegue, hatred and vengeance filled the once hopeful eyes. Lucas longed to rip Giegue's heart straight out of his chest, but alas, he clung on to the misguided hope that there was a part of Giegue which could feel compassion.

Kumatora launched her PK Fire which darted towards Giegue with extreme speed. Giegue held out a hand and summoned an invisible shield which the lightning bolt impacted, erupting into flames.

Meanwhile, Ness sprinted off to the side and teleported, reappearing before Paula and Ana who teamed up to fight him. Ana sent a PK Fire his way which is when Paula lobbed her frying pan at him. Ness retaliated by using his PK Flash to blind the two, luckily, Paula managed to cover her eyes. The ribbon wearing girl jumped back and used a PK Beam which sent Ness flying backwards into the nearby mound of rubble.

Giegue and Lucas had ended up going toe to toe in combat with them firing attacks at one another. Giegue launched a PK Beam at Lucas which he knocked back with his stick, the blonde then counteracted using his PK Love alpha as he didn't have that much energy left in him. This energy blew Giegue back a bit, making him lose his balance and come crashing down on his side.

Paula was handling Ness like a real pro, she was throwing her frying pan at him and while it was ricocheting off him, she alternated between one of her PSI attacks and then caught the pan. Ness was taking the beating, but he was definitely not about to give up. He took aim at Paula and used his PSI Rockin' while she was off guard, catching the frying pan. The blast threw Paula back several metres causing her to roll a little when she hit the ground.

Amidst the chaos, Jeff and Loid were busy tinkering with their cannon, adding some last-minute adjustments to increase the power for the next blast on Giegue.

"Offset the electron discharge by twelve percent!" commanded Jeff as he twisted the screwdriver once more.

"Right!" replied Loid as he typed into the cannon's computer screen.

…

…

…

What? You're sceptical that the cannon has a computer? Just let it go, it's a fictional world, maybe their guns have iPads in them or something.

While the two scientists were busy with science, Duster, Boney, Ninten, Poo and Ana joined the fight. Duster lit the fuse on his pencil rocket and fired it at Giegue. The villain blocked it using his powers rendering the attack useless.

Boney noticed that a few of the psychics, namely Lucas, Kumatora and Paula, had gotten rather fatigued from the repeated use of their powers. The canine pulled out 3 Magic Tarts and gave one to each of them before they resumed the fight. During that time, Ana, Ninten and Duster took on Giegue for the time being before being able to tag Lucas back in and Poo took on Ness by himself while Kumatora and Paula replenished their power.

Ninten once again jumped onto Giegue's back and tried to incapacitate the villain using his PK Hypnosis, however, Giegue powered through and the attack only seemed to make him drowsy.

Ana used the drowsiness to her advantage and summoned a barrage of PK Fires using the last of her might. The lightning bolts merged with one another making a supremely big pyrokinetic blast of energy. The monster blast pounded into Giegue, launching him backwards in a vortex of flames.

Giegue's scorched body smacked into a wall that was missing the other three parts of it as well as the ceiling. His body made an impression in the wall that was so deep, Giegue was literally stuck in it. A Giegue shaped mould if you will.

The villain swiftly jumped to his feet and prepared his retaliation. Giegue raised his arm to his face, concentrating some sinister energy to his fingertip that formed a glowing ball. After a few more seconds, Giegue extended his arm and released the energy, causing it to form a beam which could slice through steel if it wanted to. Ana dodged the beam quickly, however, the beam pierced through Ninten's shoulder, knocking him into a mound of rubble.

"NINTEN!" Ana cried concernedly.

Poo was holding his own in battle with Ness, the former was hardly relying on his PSI in this fight. Instead he was using his martial arts and focusing more on melee attacks to hopefully smack Ness hard enough to reverse the mind control.

Ness on the other hand, was drawing energy off Giegue making his powers limitless (to an extent). The raven-haired hero didn't do so much as hesitate when it came to barraging the monk with asinine levels of PSI attacks. Ness was spamming his PSI Rockin', although it wasn't having much of an effect as Poo had raised a PSI shield to counteract this.

"Ness!" yelled Poo as he deflected a blast of PSI. "Snap out of it! The guy I know would never act like this!"

**"****The guy you know no longer exists!" **Ness responded.

"You know that isn't true!"

**"****Maybe so, but it's not like there is anything you can do…"**

"Oh! I'll bring him back!"

Poo, now seeming so much surer of himself, summoned his power to his hands and waited for the perfect opportunity for Ness to let his guard down and sure enough, his moment came. Ness dropped his guard to pull out his baseball bat which is when Poo unleashed his PK Freeze to completely encase Ness's body in ice.

Poo sighed with relief and let his arms drop to his side. He took a breather to regain some energy and then waited for Ness to thaw himself out using an energy surge.

…

…

…

The giant lump of ice started glowing before shattering completely spreading little ice cubes across the battlefield. Ness stood there looking increasingly aggravated, however, something was amiss, where was Poo? The monk could not be seen nor sensed to Ness which seemed rather odd.

Ness scoured every inch of what he could see but could not find a single trace of Poo.

Suddenly, the latter dropped out of the sky and pounded Ness in the head using his elbow, knocking him completely unconscious.

This was a special request Jeff had made so that he could study the brain of someone who was being controlled by Giegue and perhaps figure out a way to either snap them out of it or prevent it from happening.

All that remained now was to best Giegue in combat so much so that he would at least yield in this fight, even if that meant that he would live to fight another day.

With Ness incapacitated, all attention turned to Giegue who was handling Ana, Ninten and Duster with ease. That was until Lucas, Kumatora, Paula and Poo joined back in. As Boney's skills were limited, he decided to refrain from fighting and instead focused on revitalising his friends with the use of life noodles and magic tarts.

Giegue showed no signs of faltering, despite being faced by 7 angry foes. He maintained his guarded stance whilst switching to offensive when need be.

Paula, wanting to save her energy, attacked using one of her many frying pans, alternating between throwing them at Giegue or whacking him with it, "go for the head" she was told. Kumatora was reserving as much energy as she could whilst using her PSI attacks to fight, mainly resorting to the beta forms so that she could keep some of the energy.

Ana used her PSI attacks as normal and did not switch, reducing her defence slightly. Ninten attacked using his baseball bat, only because he did not possess any offensive PSI techniques, instead he might resort to using a technique that might assist in battle, such as life-up.

Giegue teleported back to an open spot where Kumatora and Ana both used a PK Fire on him. The two lightning bolts darted across the open space and smacked into Giegue's invisible shield, proving themselves useless. That was until the flames died down and revealed that this was intentionally misleading.

Ninten had teleported Ana, Poo and Kumatora behind Giegue as an ambush. Poo unleashed a PK Freeze which immobilised the tyrant. Ana then used her PK Beam on Giegue now that his body was encased in ice. She used this several times and pierced through several spots on Giegue's body; his right arm, both of his legs and a section of his lower left abdomen. Now that he was weakened, Kumatora unleashed her PK Ground that tore through the rubble and repeatedly pounded Giegue's body over and over again.

The structure of ice that imprisoned him was beginning to weaken and before long, shattered into a million pieces.

Now that the ice was not there to numb the pain, Giegue was beginning to feel the effects of the several wounds he had sustained. To stop this, Giegue formed a small barrier and started to rapidly self-heal. The group looked on in disbelief that the holes in his body were slowly closing.

"How is he doing that?!" questioned Poo.

**"****HE-HE-HE!" **Giegue chuckled. **"YOU MAGGOTS HAD NO IDEA, DID YOU? THAT I CAN REGENERATE!"**

"What?" gasped Ana.

"That means if we are to kill him, we have to kill him quickly!" Jeff said.

Following Jeff's last remark, the group psyched themselves up and charged Giegue. Duster lit an new year's eve bomb hoping it would be successful. Unfortunately, it was a dud.

"Worst 2000DP I ever spent!" sighed Duster.

**"****HA-HA-HA!" **Giegue cackled. **"YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY HOPE TO DEFEAT ME… I AM FAR TOO POWERFUL! YOUR PATHETIC WEAPONS ARE THAT OF A CHILD HAVING A TANTRUM, YOU AND YOUR LITTLE TRICKS ARE NO MATCH FOR ME! I WILL ONCE AGAIN OFFER YOU THE CHANCE TO SURRENDER AND BE AT MY SIDE WHILE I LEAD MY REVOLUTION!"**

"Hey genius!" yelled Jeff. "A revolution is when the public rise up to destroy the ruling power, not enslavement!"

**"****So?"**

"So you need to check when you're being distracted!"

Giegue paused for a moment, contemplating. What distraction?

The villain then turned around to see Loid standing there with the cannon in his hands, the latter of which was at maximum power and seconds away from being fired.

**"****SHIT!"**

A blinding surge of energy manifested at the barrel of the cannon, this energy surge then turned into a great laser which pierced through the battlefield and engulfed Giegue's body.

Giegue could feel every single cell in his body be ripped apart one by one, until all that remained was a stripped-down shell of what had been. The laser faded away after losing its power, and what it left was a broken, half-dead corpse, sitting on its battered knees.

"This is it!" Poo cried. "Our chance!"

"I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS A LONG TIME AGO!" Yelled Ninten as he appeared with a battle-axe that he had inexplicably acquired and lunged to take off Giegue's head.

From the dead eyes shone a flash of energy. A red, sinister energy. This energy moved like a liquid and grabbed a hold of Ninten before he could finish the job.

The fluid-like surge forcefully removed the battle-axe and let it fall to the ground. It persisted in holding Ninten up in the air like a puppet on a string.

"NINTEN!" Cried Ana concernedly.

Giegue's head turned to Ninten, almost like a skeletal being with crude movements, like a reanimated corpse. It almost looked as if Giegue's head was barely attached to his body.

From within him, a deep and demonic voice emerged, full of nothing except anger and sorrow.

**"****I APPLAUD YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS, BUT THERE'S NOTHING THAT CAN SAVE YOU NOW…"**

The glow from within his eyes intensified and started swirling around the half-dead body. The same was true for Ninten who could feel the power intensifying around him, constricting him, much like how a cobra would its prey. What remained of Giegue's body turned to a blood shade of red as he stood to his feet, feeling the overwhelming energy pass through every cell, ripping out the good left in him, however little it may have been. As it did so, Ninten was expelled from the grip of the energy and flung across the decimated city, crashing into a mound of rubble.

Each cell that made up Giegue's very being was slowly disappearing. The energy surging intensified again, packing the same power as the burning cores of 5 stars in the night's sky. This blew back the group, pinning them to the ground, allowing them to witness the coming events.

The very last fibres of Giegue's body were ripped apart, and from the traces, emerged an explosion of red.

A dark energy, comprised of only evil, hate, anger and sorrow escaped the cocoon that was once a body.

Giegue had achieved something truly sinister, his overwhelming energy that he was struggling to control had finally consumed him, leaving only the faceless mass of energy before our heroes. Giegue had become unbound…


	37. Chapter 37: The Tables turn

**Chapter 37: The tables turn…**

This destructive and violent mass of energy moved and flowed, the same way waves crashing against the beach would. It was like a cloud, made up of only the colours black and red.

Paula, Poo and Jeff knew exactly what lie before them. A dark surge of energy made up of one completely insane consciousness.

"i—it can't be!" Paula said, on the verge of tears, frozen in her own fear.

"He—he's back?!" Jeff added, staring at the evil in front of him.

"I-Impossible!" Poo stuttered, quaking in his sandals.

"What is this?!" Kumatora asked, feeling the gravity of the fear which was instilled in the trio.

"It's Giegue at his full power…" Jeff told. "When he reaches his full potential, he loses his mind, completely consumed by his relentless power… he becomes _Giygas…_"

"GIYGAS?!" Duster cried.

The heroes of this tale looked on in horror at the devastatingly evil mass before them. From the swirling vortex of sinister energy, they could see what looked like a face, distorted from its previous glory.

"How are we going to defeat this?!" Ana cried.

"We-we did it before! We can do it again!" Paula added.

"But how?!" asked Lucas.

"We banded together, and using the energy of the Earth, we prayed so hard, it wounded him!" Poo replied.

"Um… not to be a buzz kill, but…" began Duster. "This Earth barely has any energy left in it as it is, nearly the entire world was reduced to rubble by Giegue!"

"For once, Duster actually makes a good point…" said Kumatora. "And Giygas is at his full power, so even if we had enough energy, it might not be that effective!"

**"****bOw DoWn To Me, FoR i Am YoUr ReCkOnInG!" **Giygas commanded, asserting his presence to the cowering group before him. **"I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU ALL, BEFORE YOU CAN SAY DOO-FLOP!"**

"Huh?" Lucas said questioningly.

"Remember that this is Giegue AFTER he lost his mind, not everything he says makes sense." Jeff explained.

"We have to strike him down now, together!" Paula cried.

"But we're a man down!" Poo protested, looking towards Ness' unconscious body lying on the ground.

"Okay!" Kumatora said, taking command of the team. "Jeff, Loid and Boney, you three take Ness somewhere safe and get him back. The rest of us will attack Giygas!"

As commanded, Loid, Jeff and Boney snuck off and took Ness' body with them. Where they were headed, they did not know. The rest of the team stepped forward to face off against Giygas.

Boney had managed to find the crumbling remains of a Dentist's surgery which was fully equipped with working lights and even the chair. The computer on the desk, while damaged, was still functional and certain appliance s could still be used. Loid and Jeff carefully laid Ness's body on the chair and then the latter took some appliances and fashioned together some sort of brain scanner and attached it to Ness's head. The strange scanner started feeding to the damaged computer and displayed an image of Ness's brain, of which, certain areas were illuminated.

"His Corpus Collosum and Amygdala are completely dormant!" Jeff stated, reading the screen. "He does not have a single bit of control over his body, no wonder Poo's efforts to wake him up were futile!"

"Woof! (Yeah but what the f**k does that all mean?!)" Boney questioned.

"It means that when Giygas has control over him, he cannot access his memories, emotions or take any control over his motor skills, his movements!" Loid explained.

"We should be able to restart his consciousness if we send an electrical impulse into the brain to awaken these areas…" hypothesised Jeff.

Loid started rummaging through the cupboard and found a jump lead and a battery. "Will these do?" he asked Jeff.

"Well the battery is for a car so that won't do, but we could use the jump cable and connect it to the light's power source?" Jeff proposed.

"It could work!" Loid said, removing the light bulb and attaching the jump cable to the light's power source and then connecting it to the brain scanner thing.

"Alright… set the power at 14 Volts and we'll go from there!" Jeff instructed, typing on the keyboard.

"Okay!" Loid said, giving a thumbs up.

Jeff pulled a red lever that was next to the computer and the small voltage began to surge through the cable into Ness' brain. After a few seconds, the computer displayed a change in Ness's brain.

A surge of psychic energy rippled through the clouds and rained down on the group, fighting for their survival. The energy took the form of a collection of lightning bolts that radiated the floor.

Kumatora summoned the PSI in her body and formed a PSI magnet to absorb the excess energy. The energy revitalised Kumatora, protecting her in the process.

Poo tried to do the same but could not summon the magnet in time. The lightning bolt zapped Poo from his feet upwards.

He, Lucas, Paula, Duster, Poo, Ana and Ninten all collapsed under the power of the energy.

Kumatora feebly looked towards Giygas with a stern expression written across her face. Fear, dread and anxiety filled the pit of her stomach.

She clicked her fingers and sparked a small pulse of PSI energy, standing up to the tyrant before her.

***KABLOOM***

"What the hell was that?!" the pink-haired princess cried as she turned her head to see a blinding pulse of energy emanating from where the nerds had taken Ness to fix him up.

At the centre of the light was Ness. A light, powerful, yet gentle energy surged throughout and around him.

He opened his eyes and from within them, shone a sinister red energy that seemed to be backed behind Ness' kind heart, like he had control of the Giygas' energy within him. He was ready for revenge.

Lucas struggled to sit up, looking to the one he loves in disbelief. "Ness?" he cried.

Ness turned his head to face the small blonde. He smiled gently at the latter and turned his attention back to Giygas.

**"****Impossible…" **Giygas uttered, facing the raven-haired boy.

Ness summoned the energy to his hands and took the air-guitar stance. He 'strummed' his hands and generated a powerful attack.

"PSI ROCKIN'!" Shouted Ness as a colossal power surge rung out in soundwaves that emanated from his hands. The soundwaves impacted Giygas' body and rippled throughout, causing an immense level of pain to the villain.

**"****YoU'Ll PaY fOr ThAt!" **Giygas growled at the raven-haired hero.

A sinister power began to surge throughout Giygas' body mass and rippled into the clouds. Lightning began to rain onto the evil embodiment which was absorbed and then converted into a powerful shockwave which could obliterate anything caught in the blast. Ness extended his hand and summoned a shield which effortlessly deflected the shockwave back onto the tyrant.

The shockwave caused a blinding explosion which engulfed Giygas, tearing him to shreds.

Meanwhile, Kumatora searched the battlefield for her fallen comrades with the intention to heal them all. She easily found Paula, Lucas, Poo, Duster, Ninten, Ana, Jeff, Loid and Boney and healed all of their wounds using her PSI Life-up Omega.

"Okay guys!" Paula said, getting everyone's attention. "Ness can't defeat Giygas on his own, he needs our help!"

"How can we help?" Poo questioned. "Ness literally has Giygas' power for his own, he is at least as powerful as the bastard!"

"That may be the case, but he won't be able to last much longer…" Kumatora explained. "His body can't handle that much energy, he isn't strong enough. If we don't help him defeat Giygas soon, the energy will consume him, and he'll die!"

"We have to help him! Whatever it takes!" Lucas said, all profound-like.

"Lucas is right!" Ninten added, backing up the blonde. "Ness would do the same for us, no matter the cost!"

"Woof! (Yeah, but like, we barely know who _you _are!)" Boney replied.

"Not now, Boney!" Duster scolded.

"So what is the plan?!" Poo questioned.

"Right!" Began Paula. "Jeff and Loid, do you still have the Cannon you used before?"

"It's nearby, but it was damaged by the rubble…" explained Loid. "Jeff and I will need a few minutes to get it working again!"

"Alright! You guys get to work!" Paula commanded.

As per her command, Jeff and Loid scurried off to recover the cannon and start making repairs on it. The rest of the group awaited their instructions.

"Duster and Boney, I want you two to team up and stick together, neither of you have PSI to protect you so we'll have you use the bombs you bought from the market!" Commanded Kumatora.

"Woof, woof! (Yeah whatever, I'm just trying not to die!)" Boney crudely said.

"I have some running bombs and pencil rockets left over…" Duster said. "I can put a few of them together to make a super-bomb?"

"Yeah, do that!" Kumatora agreed.

"Okay, all of the PSI users are going to have to band together for this one and share as much power as we can muster up!" Paula said.

"What are everyone's most powerful attacks?" Lucas questioned.

"Your PK Love, Poo and Kumatora's PK Star-Storm, Paula's PK beam, Ana's PK Fire…" Ninten blurted.

"Oh yeah, you don't have any offensive attacks, do you?" Paula asked Ninten.

"No, but I have my hypnosis and I can be on heal duty for you all as well?"

"Okay!" Kumatora encouraged. "Here's the plan…"

Ness was clinging onto his strength to help him win the battle, but he was beginning to falter. The more PSI he used, the more drained he felt. Giygas' energy was beginning to leach off his life energy.

"I don't know if I can do this…" Ness said to himself, looking onto the towering power Giygas possessed.

Lucas appeared next to Ness and gently took his hand.

"You don't have to do it alone…" he said kindly.

Atop the nearby hill, Paula, Ana and Kumatora stood proudly, channelling all of their anger, sorrow, loss and PSI. All of which caused their eyes to glow a strong pink light.

"It's the end of the road for you, Giygas!" Paula cried.

**"****PAHAHAHAHAHA!" **Giygas laughed, hysterically. **"YOU PATHETIC BRATS COULDN'T POSSIBLY HOPE TO DEFEAT ME!"**

Ana charged her PSI energy to her hands and summoned a PK Fire. This PK Fire was 10 times the size it usually is and packed 12 times the power. The gigantic lightning bolt coursed across the battlefield and erupted into a pillar of fire which temporarily blinded Giygas. Duster and Boney snuck in closely to plant the super-bombs near Giygas so they'd have the best impact against him. The duo retreated quickly as Giygas regained his eyesight.

The angered energy mass summoned a barrage of energy attacks which targeted the fighters he could see. Lucas powered up to the max and used his PSI Shield Omega to shield all of his friends and deflect the attack back onto Giygas.

Kumatora and Paula used the deflected energy blasts as a distraction to start charging their attacks. Kumatora began to pull stars from the sky with all the power she had while Paula pulled all of her energy into her PK Beams which rained onto Giygas alongside the barrage of stars.

"NOW!" commanded Kumatora to the rest of the group.

Ninten appeared near Giygas using his 4th D Slip and projected his PSI Hypnosis into the body mass.

Giygas' brain activity decreased, and he became unconscious which was the perfect opportunity for the rest to attack. Poo appeared and used his PK Star-Storm on Giygas causing massive damage. Lucas jumped into the air and used his PK Love Omega which caused a lot of damage as well.

Giygas regained consciousness and retaliated with a powerful siege of lightning bolts which rained onto the battlefield and zapped everyone except Ness who was shielded by Giygas' energy. Boney and Duster jumped to their feet and Duster pressed the big red button on the remote control. All the bombs detonated in sequence, one after the other which all created a dense and blinding ball of fire. The fire was pulled into Giygas energy and spun around him like a tornado, scorching his 'body'.

"NOW!" Kumatora commanded the other psychics.

As per her command, Paula, Ana and Kumatora all used their PK Fire to add to the heat and scorch Giygas' body further. Meanwhile, Lucas and Ness used their PK Flashes to blind Giygas, and Poo used his PK Star-Storm once again to deal some damage. Ninten was busy using his Life-up Omega to heal everyone's wounds and keep them on their feet.

Giygas, having suffered some major damage, became fuelled by rage and used his power to create a large shockwave of PSI energy to wipe everyone out. Lucas sensed the shift in the tyrant's energy and generated his PSI shield omega to protect as many people as the guard could reach. The menacing energy surged throughout Giygas' body before he expelled it knocking those who were unprotected to their feet. Ninten, Poo, Jeff and Boney were all knocked out from the powerful attack. You know what it was like? That scene in Subspace Emissary where Tabuu basically kills everyone—

"Hey!" cried Ness. "That's the wrong Game!"

*AHEM*  
As I was saying, Kumatora rushed to the aid of their injured comrades using her Life-Up Omega to heal them and help them regain consciousness. Meanwhile, Lucas and Paula staged another assault on Giygas. Lucas charged up his PK Love Omega to the max while Paula charged her PK Beam. After a few more seconds, their attacks were ready to fire.

The PK beam fired first and darted across the battlefield and pierced through Giygas body like a drill. Then, the PK Love fired and engulfed Giygas in the energy before exploding dealing massive damage to the latter.

Following the attacks, Ana joined in and used her PK Fire again and scorched Giygas once more. The PK Fire packed so much energy that it erupted into a gigantic blast of fire that would kill any mortal trapped within it. The blast left a large cloud of smoke that was so thick and dense that Giygas could not be seen.

"I can't sense his energy…" Ness stated, looking to the smoke cloud with concern.

"Neither can I." Lucas added.

"Do you think… we won?" Paula proposed.

Boney started growling and barking at the cloud of smoke as some of it became displaced. It looked as though Giygas was still alive, but barely.

"I don't think he has much left in him!" Jeff said, looking at the beaten and weary body mass.

"If we band together, we should be able to take him down!" Ana cried.

"We just need the mother-load of all attacks to do it!" Ninten added.

"Okay! Listen up!" Kumatora cried. "I have an idea!"

"We're listening…" Duster said.

"Right, Jeff and Loid, is the cannon working?" the princess asked.

"Yes!" they replied.

"Okay, so here's the plan…" Kumatora stated. "Ninten, you're going to create a diversion so Giygas doesn't sense our energy growing, I've chosen you because you can use your 4th D Slip to escape if things go south!"

"That's fair I guess." Ninten replied.

"then, while he's distracted, Boney and Duster will lob the remainder of their bombs at him for a smack down that should weaken him. After that, we psychics will use every drop of energy we have left to create the most powerful attack this world has ever seen!"

"Alright!" the psychics replied.

"And when all of that is said and done, Jeff and Loid will use the cannon to blast the ass-hole back to hell!"

"Okay!" the nerds replied. "Its basically the same plan as before, but with more power!"

**"… ****UGH…" **Giygas groaned as he got back up again. **"It… It Hurts…"**

"WELL IT'S ABOUT TO GET A WHOLE LOT WORSE!" Ninten yelled mockingly.

**"****He-he-he…" **The tyrant chuckled. **"You're nothing more than a paper tiger standing before a storm, what could ****_You _****possibly hope to do against me?!"**

"MAYBE WIPE THAT UGLY GRIN OF YOUR FACE?!"

**"****Well come on, bring all four feet of you, or should I count your stupid ego?!"**

"That…. Doesn't even make any sense!" Ninten yelled, scratching the back of his head confusedly. "And I'm not even *that* short!"

Giygas scoffed at the boy's last remark causing the latter to pout like a child until his cheeks puffed up and went pink.

"Stop mocking me!"

**"****You know what, I think you're the most fun I've had out of your people yet…" **Giygas stated. **"But then again, all I have to compare you to is the masses of your people that I slaughtered!"**

"Yeah and you'll pay back all of them ten-fold!"

**"****And how's that?"**

"Because we're going to kill you!"

**"****We?"**

At Ninten's last remark, Duster and Boney jumped out from behind a mound of rubble and lobbed the most powerful bombs they had on them at the tyrant, all of them packing a punch and producing large burns across his body. Duster had one more pencil rocket left over and wanted to make it count.

He tossed it to Ninten who then used his 4th D Slip to teleport behind Giygas and well… um… Ninten basically shoved the rocket up Giygas' ass. With the bomb… um… lodged firmly in place, Ninten teleported once again with only seconds before the bomb exploded.

Giygas sensed something was not quite right.

**"****What the?..." **He mumbled. **"Oh… anything's a dildo if you're brave enough!"**

The rocket exploded taking half of Giygas with it. Giygas was now weaker than he had ever been before.

The psychics teleported in using Ness' PK teleport and used the energy they had been gathering to produce an attack so powerful, that there was literally nothing like it before.

Lucas started by adding PK Love omega into the mix to serve as a base. Then Kumatora and Poo added their PK Star Storms. After that, Paula and Ana added PK Fire into the mix and Ness finished it off with PSI Rockin' to give the attack its final cell-shredding push.

The psychic attacks, however, could not be seen by the other combatants on the field.

"Where is it, shouldn't it be like a massive ball of energy or something?" Duster asked the others.

"I don't know…" Ninten added.

Boney looked up to the clouds where a strange purple light was shining through the cracks in them. Of course, he did not question it because he didn't really care.

Duster and Ninten noticed that Kumatora was standing atop a hill waving her arms around and shouting something which they could not hear.

"What's she saying?" Ninten asked Duster.

"I have no idea!" he replied.

"Woof! (I can probably hear her!)" Boney said.

Boney listened in very closely.

"Woof, woof! (She said, 'Get out of the way now, it's right above you!')" Boney said innocently.

"Huh?" Duster said.

Ninten looked up following the statement and saw the purple light before the clouds were torn away by the gigantic ball of energy that was hurtling towards Giygas.

"OH SHIT!" Ninten cried as he sprinted towards Duster and Boney, grabbed hold of them and teleported right out of there using his 4th D Slip.

Just as the trio disappeared, the energy ball, affectionately dubbed 'PK Nuke' by it's creators, impacted Giygas body ripping it apart in a surge of blinding light and scorching energy.

While the PK Nuke consumed Giygas, Jeff and Loid readied the cannon, aiming it for the centre of the chaos.

The cannon whirred to life and from the barrel appeared a blinding laser that pierced through the battlefield once again and impacted the very centre of the PK Nuke and fished tearing apart what was left of Giygas.

The surge of energy finally exploded producing a powerful shockwave that knocked everyone on their asses and surged all around the planet, crumbling buildings all around.

When the dust finally settled, all that was left was a gaping crater the size of the moon and the limp and unconscious bodies of the heroes who made it possible, scattered throughout.


	38. Chapter 38: Peace at Last!

**Chapter 38: Peace, at last!**

…

…

…

…

…

"Lucas… Ness…" a melodic voice cried out.

…

…

…

…

Ness awoke in a daze to find him self in the familiar world of Magicant. Beside him laid Lucas who regained consciousness shortly after the former.

"Ness?" Lucas questioned. "What's going on… where are we?"

"I'm not sure, I think this is Magicant…" Ness told.

"What's Magicant?" the blonde asked curiously.

"Magicant is the realm in between worlds, it exists in a dream state and time acts weirdly here, like you could meet yourself from 5 years ago, and then yourself from 60 years in the future!"

"That's strange!"

"Usually, when I've come here in the past, there's been a message that someone wants me to hear or a lesson for me to learn… but, I've never come here with someone else…" Ness explained.

"Oh… well if it makes you feel any better, I've never been here before!" Lucas said comfortingly.

Ness giggled.

The melodic voice once again cried out, "Ness… Lucas…"

"What the—" Lucas yelped. "Who? What? Huh?!"

"I have no idea!" Ness replied to Lucas' nonsense.

The clouds in the sky parted and from the heavens above, descended a familiar woman with light chestnut hair and a red dress that bellowed around her knees.

Lucas was utterly gobsmacked as he looked on in awe. Tears of joy filled his eyes as the woman finally landed before them in arms reach.

"M… Mom?" Lucas sobbed.

"Hello, my darling…" Hinawa replied, putting a soft hand on the blonde's cheek.

The flood gates opened as Lucas wrapped his arms around Hinawa, sobbing as he finally felt her warm embrace. Hinawa protectively wrapped her arms around her son and rested her head on his.

"Well…" She spoke softly, causing Lucas to look up to her face. "You've had quite the day, hmm?"

"Um… How?!" Lucas sobbed. "How is this even possible?!"

"My darling, you have much yet to learn…" Hinawa said gently. "This world exists in between what you'd call reality and the afterlife."

Lucas did not care about any of that, he was just content with being reunited with his mother.

"I cannot even put into words how proud I am of you, of all of you!" Hinawa stated. "Not only did you take on the most powerful evil that the world has ever known, but you won!"

This just made Lucas more emotional. He never thought he would get to hear his mother's voice ever again, let alone that he's hear her say that she's proud of him.

"So… we meet again…" Hinawa said, looking to Ness, the latter of whom was enjoying this heartfelt moment.

"Hi… again!" Ness giggled.

"I'm so glad to see that you followed my advice…" Hinawa winked at Ness, who then sweated a drop.

"Hehehe… yeah!" Ness giggled nervously.

The trio talked for what felt like hours in the pink candyfloss world of Magicant.

"My darling boy…" Hinawa began. "I'm sorry but your time here is up."

"What?" Lucas questioned. "No!"

Lucas began to cry, the thought of having to leave his mother broke his heart.

"Don't cry, my child." Hinawa said, placing a warm soft hand on his cheek. "This is not going to be the last time we see each other, that's a promise!"

"Well.. when will I get to see you again?" Lucas sobbed, pouting his bottom lip slightly.

"Soon…" Hinawa replied. "And I'll always be with you in your heart!"

"You know, people only say that to make others feel better!" Lucas protested.

"Well did it work?" Hinawa jokingly replied.

"… Kinda…"

"Haha!" Hinawa giggled. "Well then it's settled!"

"Promise to visit me in my dreams?" the blonde asked.

"Always…" his mother replied. "And you take care of yourself, Ness!"

"I will!" Ness replied.

"The future holds great things for both of you, and I'll know you'll make me proud!"

Hinawa began to ascend back into the clouds as sparkly magical dust swarmed around her feet and pulled her to the heavens.

"I love you mom!" Lucas yelled, tears filling his eyes.

"And I love you too, my darling!" Hinawa replied as she blew him a kiss goodbye.

…

As she disappeared into the clouds, Ness and Lucas were pulled from Magicant back to the real world.

"Ness!" Paula called out. "Wake up!"

As she yelled, Ness awoke and opened his eyes to see the beaming faces of his dear friends. Lucas soon followed who was then showered in kisses from Boney who said, and I quote, "No Homo!"

"I can't believe it!" Kumatora said, seeming astonished by the victory. "We actually won!"

"Yeah… not to bad for a group of kids!" Jeff added, pushing his glasses further up his face, causing them to catch the light.

"Although, we still have one pretty big problem left to fix!" Ninten said, pointing to the mighty dragon in the sky.

"Oh yeah… that exists." Duster added.

"Well he's not being mind controlled anymore… maybe we can talk to him?" Paula proposed to the group.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Poo asked.

"We can use my Pray ability, if we all join hands, we can all talk to it!" she explained.

"Okay… it's worth a shot!" Ana said.

Everyone except the Psychics joined hands and shared Paula's ability to pray to the mighty dragon waiting above the clouds.

_"__Hello?" Paula cried out. "Can you hear me?"_

_"__Greetings children…" The Dragon replied. "I must thank you for the part you played in restoring peace to this world…"_

_"__It was nothing…" Giggled Poo seeming rather cocky._

_"__It was most definitely not nothing!" the dragon replied. "And as a token of my appreciation, I am going to reverse the damage done by Giygas and bring back all of the people he hurt in his slaughter. He ruined the beauty of your world, it is only right I bring it back as your reward for defeating him!"_

_"__That is most kind of you!" Kumatora exclaimed._

_"__There are some among you who are not from this world… for those of you who fought this war on alien territory, I give you my thanks once more…"_

_Ninten, Ana, Poo and Paula all blushed a little, meanwhile Ness just kept smiling like he usually does._

_"__Before I restore this planet to its former beauty, I must first inform you that I have left a little surprise for the two of you named 'Ness' and 'Lucas', the righting of one wrong in particular for one of you, and the beginning of another exciting journey into the unknown for another. This whole war started when the two of you crossed paths and it ended when you used the love you have for each other as well as your world to finally overpower the evil that threatened everything you hold dear…"_

_Ness and Lucas gazed at one another, a spark of excitement filling their eyes._

_"__Farewell brave children… I hope to meet you again in another life!"_

As the dragon said his final goodbyes, his eyes changed colour to a vibrant and gentle shade of light blue.

His magic rippled out from his body and enveloped the entire planet in a warm blanket of light that mended its wounds.

The group of heroic kids looked around as the plants and the flowers began to grow once more, in an evergreen and lush beauty that they had never seen before. All of the crumbling mounds of rocks in the mountains were restored to a stable and untouched state like they were in before. The crater that rested in Tazmily Village was filled and the buildings there were magically rebuild, brick by brick. Lucas' house that stood proudly on the cliffside was slowly rebuilt as each plank of wood slotted carefully into the right place and the bed of sunflowers that grew just outside of the house grew taller and more beautiful than ever before. The gloomy clouds that hung over the Nowhere Islands disappeared as the sun rose on a bright new day.

The dragon disappeared into the unknown to take his rest having fixed what had been broken and saved what had been lost.

The group looked upon the horizon, gazing at the grateful planet before them.

"We did good, guys!" Kumatora said, breaking the ice.

"Yeah…" Paula replied seeming happy, although a twinge of sorrow filled her voice.

"What's up?" Lucas asked.

"Well… it's just… this means we have to go back to our worlds now…" She explained.

"That's true!" Ninten cried. "Without us in the timelines, our worlds could be ruined!"

Loid, Jeff and Ness all looked confusedly at the Boy with an expression that said, 'he can smart?'.

Lucas looked at Ness solemnly with a face of sorrow and love… you know what I mean? Like he's so in love but sad to see him go.

"In that case… we should probably return to our worlds!" Ana said.

Ninten, Loid and Ana all said their goodbyes to each individual member of the group, hugging them and wishing them well.

Ness, Lucas, Kumatora, Poo and Paula all combined their power for Ness to open the portal back to their world and the trio stepped through it, emerging on the other side waving one final goodbye before the portal closed behind them.

"I suppose it's our turn…" Jeff said sadly as the psychics opened another portal back to Eagleland.

"I am grateful to have met you guys… and Kumatora, make sure you ship an OTP twice as hard for me!" Paula said.

"I will!" Kumatora said, struggling to withhold the tears.

"Take care of yourselves!" Jeff said as he and Paula stepped through the portal.

"It was an honour to battle alongside you all…" Poo gestured as he too stepped through the portal.

Ness was the only one left to step into the portal.

Lucas grabbed hold of Ness, hugging him tightly and burying his head in Ness' shoulders.

"I… I… Love you!" Lucas sobbed as he tightened the grip around Ness' body.

Ness returned the gesture, "I love you too!"

"You've made me so happy!" Lucas said, gazing fondly into Ness' purple eyes.

"You've helped me understand so much about myself, and I'm so grateful to have loved you…" Ness said, fighting the tears running down his face.

The two young lovers shared one final and passionate kiss before Ness had to step into the portal. Ness put one foot into the portal before Lucas lost the grip on Ness' hand.

"Please… don't go!" Lucas whispered.

But it was to late and the portal disappeared with Ness on the other side, in Saturn Valley where the smiling faces of his friends waited for him.

Ana and Ninten were strolling down a street, talking about the events that had transpired.

"You know, something's got me thinking…" Ninten said to the girl beside him.

"What?" she responded.

"Well… Ness kinda looks like me, and he's a psychic…" He explained.

"Oh my god, where are you going with this?!" Ana cried.

"Well… all I'm saying is I think I'm his dad!"

"Oh hell nah, you ain't having a psychic kid without me!"

Ness and his friends emerged at the moment they returned from the fight against Giygas.

"What are you guys gonna do now?" Jeff asked.

"I'm going to train and get stronger!" Poo exclaimed. "But I don't have to do that at the palace I come from, I think I want to mover closer to you guys!"

"There's a few houses near me that are free, I think!" Paula added.

"What about you Ness?" Poo asked.

"I… er… think I need to go home and see my mom…" Ness solemnly explained.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Paula asked caringly.

"I will be…" Ness replied.

Paula, Poo and Jeff began the journey back to Twoson and decided to go to the nearest bus stop and wait for the bus. Meanwhile, Ness took out his bike and rode it back to Onett to his house.

As he approached the door to his house where he noticed that the flag on the mailbox was standing upright. Ness curiously opened the hatch to find a sealed letter that had a strange symbol engraved into the wax that sealed the opening in the envelope.

Ness tore the letter open and read it to himself.

_Dear Ness of Onett,_

_I am delighted to invite you to the tournament of a lifetime  
that some only dream of participating in.  
If you wish to take part in the Super Smash Brothers Tournament, please  
selected the 'I'm in!' option in the accompanied iPad  
and a car will arrive in 2 days to pick you up and bring you there._

_Time in the Smash Brothers World does not pass as normal, so if you choose to  
participate in the tournament, you will not age, nor will any  
time pass in your world in your absence, you will return at the  
exact moment you left after the tournament ends._

_If you wish not to participate, that is completely okay, simply  
select the 'No Thanks' option on the iPad and you will not be entered  
into the competition. There will be other opportunities for you to  
participate in future tournaments if you do choose this option._

_Yours Sincerely,  
~ Master Hand_

Ness picked up the iPad in the mailbox, although he had no idea what an iPad was because they hadn't been invented yet, and weighed up his options, carefully considering each of the two options.

Lucas sat down on the sofa in his living room, clutching a photo of him and Ness. Tears slowly dripped onto the bottom of the photo when the house telephone started to ring. Lucas stood up and used his arm to dry the tears from his face.

"Hello?" Lucas answered.

The voice on the other end told Lucas of some exciting news causing the latter to drop the phone and dash out of his house towards the village.

Lucas made his way to the hospital where he opened the door to the room and entered to see Fuel holding onto Claus's hand.

"Hey bro!" Claus exclaimed, happy to see his brother.

"Claus…you're awake!" Lucas cried joyfully.

"Of course!" Claus weakly said in a joking manner. "I couldn't sleep for much longer!"

Lucas giggled.

"So… did we win?" Claus curiously asked.

"Yeah… yeah we did…" Lucas sadly said.

"… Oh… but at a high cost…" Claus said, reading the room.

"I'll be okay…" Lucas said, reassuring his brother.

"I know you will…" the carrot top replied.

Lucas had a heavy heart having lost his first love, but he had his brother back now, and that was just enough for him.

_-The End-  
Thanks for Reading!_


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